i'm home! / april haul!

Hey everyone! Back to live posting here from RLN headquarters.

I had a fantastic time on vacation, spent a ton of money, ate a whole bunch of good food, and of course brought home a lot of polish.

I'm gonna start this post with my usual monthly haul list, and then move on to the stuff I got while on vacation!
Before I left for vacation, I wasn't really being as good as I should have been...

I got a bunch of Color Club at Winners:
Color Club - Hypnotic
Color Club - Clean Break
Color Club - Daisy Does It
Color Club - Wing Fling
Color Club - Metamorphosis
Color Club - Fly With Me
Color Club - Sparkle and Soar
Color Club - Sky High
Color Club - Diamond Drops
Color Club - Blue-Ming
Color Club - Blushing Rose
Color Club - Lavendarling

I did a review for piCture pOlish:
piCture pOlish - Peacock
piCture pOlish - Monroe
piCture pOlish - Mask-A-Rade

I got two polishes from my friend Briana:
Icing - The Golden Age of Glitter
Icing - After Party

I bought two polishes from Pretty and Polished:
Pretty & Polished - Party on my Yacht
Pretty & Polished - The Amazing Technicolor Topcoat

I got a bunch of OPI on clearance for $1.99! (Such a good deal!):
OPI - Paint My Moji-toes Red
OPI - Pedal Faster Suzi
OPI - I Don't Give A Rotterdam
OPI - French Quarter For Your Thoughts
OPI - Vampsterdam
OPI - Give Me The Moon!
OPI - 18K Ginza Gold
OPI - Skull and Glossbones (backup!)


I also got 2 OPI's from AveYou that my friend Marissa kindly helped me get:
OPI - Lincoln Park After Dark Suede
OPI - We'll Always Have Paris Suede

Other stuff:
LCN - Love Me Love My Polish (99 cents!) 
LCN - Sweet Serenade (99 cents!)
Born Pretty Magnetic - L-001 (sent for review)


Okay, I did pretty bad before leaving. And I'm sure you know how it goes from here...

I picked up a bunch of Color Club's from a few different places! Good prices, too. I'm trying to complete the Poptastic collection (because there are way more than just the 7-piece set) and I almost have all of them now! As well I hope to finish my Glitter Vixen collection (3 left to find.) And I was totally excited to find the other purple glitter (the mini) as I've been lusting after it!
Top row:
Color Club - Where's The Soiree? 
Color Club - Peace Out Purple (mini)
Color Club - Youthquake (mini)
Color Club - Too Violet (mini)
Color Club - Magic Attraction
Bottom row:
Color Club - Feelin' Groovy
Color Club - MODern Pink
Color Club - Koo-Koo Cachoo
Color Club - Peppermint Twist (full size backup!)
Color Club - The Lime Starts Here
Color Club - Mrs. Robinson

Of course I splurged on some Sephora by OPI polishes. I told you that more Betsey's would come home with me! And a shatter did, too. It was on sale.
Sephora by OPI - Sparkling Personality 
Sephora by OPI - Opalescent Blasted
Sephora by OPI - Cartwheels on the Catwalk

I picked up a few random things along the way, of course.
OPI - Lemonade Stand By Your Man (I am in love with this name! And it was on sale. So I got it.)
Love & Beauty - Orchid (Saw this at the cash at Forever 21 and I figured hey, I'm buying half the damn store anyway, this can come home with me too.)
Sinful Colors - Dream On (I picked this up at Walgreens, my first time ever inside one. It was on sale for 99 cents so picked it up. Later on I regretted it because CC Mrs. Robinson is the same color and I bought that too.)
Nails Inc. - The Thames (OMG, this was on clearance so of course it came home. The bottle is so awesome, it's a nice collectible to have. They sell for $24.50 at Sephora in Canada and it was on sale for $11.)

These pretties came to me from the lovely Hayley from Here Comes The Sun. We've become friends online over the last year or so, and we decided to meet up and do some polish shopping!
Hayley picked me up and we hit up a few malls and had a great time. She brought me these three beauties (as well as Color Club The Lime Starts Here as seen above to complete my Wicked Sweet collection that you may remember came with a wrong color.)
Sally Hansen Nail Prisms - Blush Diamond (I think that's what it is, no name on it.)
Maybelinne Colorama - Ruby Rays (flakie!)
Sally Hansen Nail Prisms - Emerald Amethyst (duochome!)

Thank you so much for taking me out Hayley, and for bringing me these pretties! It was lovely meeting you and also nice getting a break from all the family time! Hahaha.

I came home to two amazing nail mails that my dad kindly rescued for me while I was away and unable to stalk the mailman.
Cover Band - Sticks and Stones (from Ninja Polish! Love those girls!)
Sonoma Nail Art - Sonoma Sunset (be sure to stalk Michelle's Etsy store! Love this girl too!)

Okay, that's all the polish.
Count? 55.
Some were for review, some were gifts, some were super cheap, and vacation stuff never counts, right?

I'm also gonna show you some of the other exciting stuff I got while on holiday!

I bought a freakin' ton of clothes. There's no Forever 21 or H&M in my province so whenever I get to shop there, I go crazy! I could have bought like five times as much but my mom might have shot me if I made her go into anymore F21's.
You'll notice I got a lot of leopard print... a lot of dots... a lot of hearts... a lot of bows... Life imitates nail art? Haha!

Hello Kitty clock for $8? Yes please.

I love sandals! Especially ones that are sparkly purple or ones that have bows.
I also picked up some black pumps for $10 and some Nike sneakers but I didn't take a picture because they're not as special as these.
The purple ones are American Eagle but they are from Payless and the bows Steve Madden from DSW. In love!

I made my very first MAC purchase...
I was lusting after this item for a while after seeing it online but I wasn't sure if it would work with my skin tone.
And then the lovely guy at MAC said "Are you kidding me?! It's perfect for you!"
He convinced me after complimenting my hair/eyes/skin (as I'm sure he does for everyone) but I felt special, okay? Haha!

What is this mystery item?

MAC Viva Glam Nicki Lipstick
I figure, if I'm spending $17.50 on a lipstick, it might as well be crazy, and even better that the money goes to charity.

I bought Lush's Lemony Flutter cuticle butter as well but forgot to take a picture. That was a splurge too but you know, vacation, guilt-free, etc.

Now you've seen pretty much everything.
But I've saved the best purchase for last...

I went to the Betsey Johnson boutique in Toronto. What's inside this hot pink bag?

A hot pink box. And what's inside the hot pink box?

A hot pink bag. And what's in the bag?

A beautiful ring!
OMG, I love it. I'm so happy I found it, and I got it for a steal. 

Holy crap, it makes me so happy.
(Manicure featuring Color Club The Lime Starts Here and MODern Pink - done while on vacation!)

Okay, you've seen my polish and my splurges and my Betsey ring. I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed shopping for all the things in it. Heh. See you guys tomorrow!

More about → i'm home! / april haul!

As Seen On... Kiss My Acetone

(This is a scheduled post. I'm on vacation!)

Hello everyone!

This is my second last scheduled post which means this is my second last day in Toronto. Ho hum.



The blogger I'm featuring today is a blog I looked for for a long time but I couldn't find her. (I'll explain in a minute.)

Then one day she posted something in a Facebook group I was in and I recognized her nails! I immediately followed her and left her a comment about how much I loved her nails. (Sometimes I'm a nerd. You know that already.)



Who is this blogger I am talking about? Kiss My Acetone. (Cute name, huh?)

Dori loves cupcakes. And I love cupcakes. Match made in heaven!



Now, to explain.

Long before I had my own blog and was just stalking nail Tumblrs and stuff, I came across the photo of the mani I am recreating in this post.

No watermark. But I was in love. With the mani AND with the base color.

From the picture, you can see that it is Maybelline. And it is limited edition. So I went to a few stores that carry Maybelline hoping to get lucky but nope. I didn't even know the name!

I googled, and googled, and could not figure out who the picture belonged to so I couldn't just ask what it was.

So again I googled, and somehow I found the polish. Goody Plum Drop. I needed to have it. But it was no longer available in stores and there was none on eBay. I thought I was doomed.

But then my polish fairy Caroline came along and she found it and sent it to me and I couldn't be happier about it!



So. Now I have the polish. Now I know the blogger. Now is time to recreate the mani!

And I did pretty darn good!

(Besides the index finger... I screwed it up THREE times while doing this mani. So the frosting looks a little wonky.)

Dori first did these nails when she went to Sprinkles Cupcakes! How cute?

She did them again here. And again here. AND even a tutorial, here!



I've done cupcake manis before but usually just on thumbs because they're a good shape for cupcakes.

But this version is extra special and cute and I love it and I NEED to do it again and actually wear it. For a week at least.

For this recreation I wanted to make it as close to the original as possible. Dori didn't list her polish colors, but I think I used the right shades.



A lot of polishes were involved in this...

Maybelline - Goody Plum Drop (base)

China Glaze - Fairy Dust (over the base for some extra sparkle)

China Glaze - Something Sweet (light pink)

China Glaze - Lemon Fizz (yellow)

China Glaze - Rich And Famous (medium pink)

OPI - Dim Sum Plum (dark pink)

OPI - Mermaids Tears (green, and mixed with white for light green)

OPI - You Don't Know Jacques! (brown, and mixed with white for light brown)

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Whirlwind White (...white)

Kleancolor - Twinkly Love (hearts!)



Opening and closing all the bottles is what ruined my damn nail three times!

Here are the three cute ones. No wonky one to ruin the photo.



Thank you for the inspiration Dori! Even if I did drive myself nuts trying to figure out what the hell the purple polish was.



I'm seeing Britney Spears and Nicki Minaj tonight!

Funnily enough, Dori saw the same tour, and she rocked some super blingy nails at the concert.

Hopefully by now I'll have found some super blingy polishes, and I can be blingy at Britney too!

More about → As Seen On... Kiss My Acetone

swatch spam! swap with Shadow's Nail Art

Good morning!
Today I'm going to be showing you some awesome polishes from an awesome girl.

Caroline from Shadow's Nail Art sent me all those goodies! All in the cute pink box!
We agreed to swap 2 bottles - and then she went overboard! (But I got her back, don't worry.)

All of the things she sent me were on my wishlist! And they're all so awesome!

This is China Glaze - Custom Kicks which I've already posted about on its own but I had to include it again!
Very gorgeous teal with gold shimmer, very well pigmented, 2 coats.

Sinful Colors - Green Ocean. See the pretty blue flash on the flakies? So great!
This is really sheer though so I chose to layer it for this swatch.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear- Going Green. Not a polish from the swap, but here is a swatch anyway! This is one of those awesome Xtreme Wear polishes everyone should have! 2 coats!
And then I added one thick coat of Green Ocean.

Amazing.

I'm not normally a huge flakie fan but these ones are just awesome. The colors of the flakies are so pretty.
And the different sized flakes and glitter makes it much more interesting.

Love it!

Maybelline - Goody Plum Drop. This was my number one want at the time of our swap and I never thought she was going to find it because it was from last spring. Limited edition polishes from drugstore brands are hard to find once they're gone from stores.
Somehow, she found it. My little polish fairy!
Best purple ever. The shimmer is so lovely and the shade is perfect.

It's not identical to any other polish in my collection but it is close to OPI Planks a Lot and China Glaze Spontaneous.

Ah, another polish crossed off the wishlist. Orly - Halley's Comet.
I've included a bunch of photos of this one because it is too pretty!

Just look at it! The above picture shows you the colors it shines in person. The green flash is really noticeable.

So sparkly and pretty. This is three coats.

All these pictures are really similar but I had to include them. It's teal, what else can I say.

If you don't have this polish (or one of the dupes) I really think you should get it!
As far as dupes, there is OPI Catch Me In Your Net and Zoya Charla, but I don't have either of those.
There are also these two:

Essence - Choose Me! and Wet N Wild Fast Dry - Teal of Fortune.
The Essence one is very close but a bit less sparkly, and the Wet N Wild is further away, being a bit deeper and does not have the nice green or somewhat gold shimmer. It does have the glassflecked quality to it, but not near as intense or pretty.

Blurry photo was the only one to (somewhat) show the difference. The WnW is deeper and less sparkly and has less green flash. Not as pretty. But a good, cheap alternative if you have Wet N Wild available near you.
If you have Essence available, go for that one! It is even cheaper, and much more dupe-y!
And there are even more dupes too but I don't know them all!

Caroline also custom painted me this bottle for my Rebecca Likes Cupcakes franken! I squealed when I saw it! Hello Kitty in a cupcake. It's just perfect!

Caroline received a franken from me with a cupcake sticker, so she had to go one better and make me a HK one.
How awesome?

Thanks again, Caroline! You know how much I loved everything.
You spoiled me so bad! <3


I'm off to schedule posts for while I'm on vacation! I've got some awesome posts lined up. Keep a look out for them starting on Tuesday!
(And also make sure you drop by tomorrow - I've got a very special post then too. Hint: Holo.)

More about → swatch spam! swap with Shadow's Nail Art

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

Love-Hate Mani

hiiii-yeom~

^^ thats something that my favorite, cute Korean boy always says. along with "bye-yeom~" i think im gunna start using those two more often now :)

here is a mani that i had on in the beginning of the week;

3 coats of Maybelline's Pink Sombrero. the polish is slighty squishy & jelly like, but its super cute!

on my ring finger, i used a 3d acrylic bow that i received from Born Pretty Store to review. might i add again, I LOVE THE 3D ACRYLIC MOLDS!!!! :)

this mani, i had a love-hate relationship with. at some times when i looked at my nails, i liked them. and then at other times, i just really hated them! i dont know why :P

oh, by the way... guess who has two thumbs and got her first Helmer today? MEEEEE :) guess i'll be rearranging my polishes tomorrow :)

enjoy the rest of your weekend!
bye-yeom!~
<3KATRINA

More about → Love-Hate Mani

Tulle Mani

happy Monday!

i actually wanted to post this blogpost this morning...but if you follow me on twitter, i mentioned that Blogger was "currently unavailable" for me & it wouldnt let me post anything.. errgh. its ok. as long as its letting me post now.. =P anyway, i came up with a new mani design [in my head] on Friday... i wanted to try it out RIGHT AWAY but sadly, i didnt get to try it til last night. here's how it turned out;


i used Maybelline's Bubble Pink - 3 coats. i forgot how horrible application of this polish is...freakin streaky sucker. *ahem..anyway... i used black tulle on my nails & then some pearls. this mani took me...a little more than 2 hours cause of the tulle...i had to clip them with a nail clipper to the same length/size of my nails..and then they dont exactly stay on right away either. the pearls were also a pain; the pearls have a sticky back & were connected in one line..so i had to snip off each pearl individually..


here's another angle of my nails. i actually like how the mani turned out but im not sure if it was worth the two hours...haha =P i will say that all of my pearls did make it through work today with me today, so that i like =)

uhm.. my mind is pretty much blank right now. so i'll leave it at this. =P

hope your Monday was great!,
<3KATRINA

More about → Tulle Mani

Kiana's Prom & Fimo Nails

i hope you're all enjoying your weekend! =)

its been a beautiful weekend!~ besides for the fact that i've been off work since Thursday, the weather has been beautiful--just to top it off! =)

so on Thursday, Kiana & i went to the mall & we went to Sally's. i was able to pick up a few things..


i've finally found myself in Claire's & i grabbed two bottles of Claire's Mood Fabulous/Funky polish, China Glaze's Flip Flop Fantasy, Orly's new Spark & Green Apple. [not pictured are Maybelline's Pie in the Sky, Sally Hansen White On, & Forever 21's Love & Beauty Mint.]


i also grabbed a pack of fimo stuff at Sally's. i think i got it for.. $4 something? i forget =P

i was able to try out the fimo stuff on Friday... here's my first attempt:

my thumb has Spark as the tip & a layer of China Glaze's Fairy Dust. pointer finger - pinky; Orly's Cotton Candy, Spark, Sally Hansens White On, & Orly's Green Apple.

uhm..i personally like the fimo on nails without a full nail base color. the fimo with the tip of the nail painted looks cuter. i'll have to try a manicure of just tips & fimo one day... <--does that really make any sense? haha

moving on..Friday was also the day of Kiana's prom. i was her personal chauffeur that day. i drove her everywhere to get ready & also i had to buy her everything. she was going NUTSSS cause her boyfriend accidentally burned his shirt when ironing it, just 2 hours before prom..Kiana spazzed out on me & Salena to take him to get a new shirt...so we did. she's a Prom-zilla! gosh! i cant imagine how crazy she'll be when its her WEDDING day! i wanna avoid that! hahaha

but i did do her nails. she told me i could do whatever i wanted & then when i finally did them Friday afternoon, she wouldnt let me do what i wanted. i had to do what SHE wanted. it was very aggravating for me... =P here's how her nails turned out...


this was my first time doing a full manicure with acrylics. its not too bad but it didnt turn out too well either...

here's a close up;

i literally bugged her for 20 minutes to let me put on the burgundy glitter. she's such a pain! =P

to end this entry..i even though i tweeted it on twitter..i wanna post it on here too. starting today, im going to [try] to go a full week without buying any nail polishes! since March, every single week, i've bought nail polishes..thus i have SOOO many untried polishes just stacking up!~ its pretty ridiculous! i've been meaning to buy new volleyball shoes for foreverrrr now but i spend all my money on nail polishes...but this week...im gunna try REALLY hard not to buy nail polishes & get new clothes & shoes ^^ please wish me luck..i need all the luck cause i have no self control what-so-ever! and if you have tips on how NOT to buy polishes, please share! ahahaha

enjoy the rest of your day,
<3KATRINA

More about → Kiana's Prom & Fimo Nails