Absolutely Alice

So I couldn't wait until tomorrow to post this so here it is now. :)

I finally got my hands on AA and I loveeeee it.

OPI Absolutely Alice

clear base with dense blue shimmer. The swatch is 2 coats and no top coat. Absolutely love love love this! It's so BAM! lmao. :P The nail line is a little visible but maybe 3 coats is best, or applying it evenly? I guess for me, glitters are harder apply because most of it get on the nail bed and when I brush downwards to the end of the nail, there's not as much glitter. Also, I added Essie's Matte About You and it still looks great! :)

I signed up for MUA (itsofluffy) to swap polishes. I only added a few here but I might add some more :D. I'm welcome to swap any polishes, just find me there! (note the username came from Despicable Me, because I LOVED the trailer♥)

<3katherine

Anna Banana Bandanna

How is everyone's day? I had an okay day. If you don't mind my rambling about my day, feel free to read if not, you can just skip this section. :P So the past 3 weeks and this week in total, I've only been scheduled for work 2 days out of FOUR weeks T___T;. As I desperate asked for a shift from other co-workers (we have our own Facebook group to give away and take shifts because there's more than 200 of us), someone messaged me with a 6:30-11:30am shift. I've never woken up so early in my life (5am) to get to work. I admit, I was REALLY tired and too lazy to get out of bed, but I had to stick with it. I was mainly folding clothes for 3 hours and a 1/2 until we had someone check our whole store for an issue that came up (I'm not allowed to disclose what the reason is). And it turns out the problem is a lot bigger than the day before (the first day it happened), and they just sent everyone home. The good thing is, I hate working. But I need the money when I get paid next week and I was hoping to get more shifts for the rest of this week, I guess that's not possible now. :<

So maybe it's time for a new job? I've been working at the store since October. It pays more than other stores and above minimum wage. But the best thing about the job is that it is so flexible based on my schedule, even if it changes. There's always people willing to cover your shift and during good "money making times" there are more shifts people are always giving away daily. I don't know, my boyfriend's telling me that the slowness is going to pass and that I'll get more work but my mom is just telling me to get a better job, ughh.

Anyways, enough rambling, here's my swatch of the day & I'll provide the nail of the day coming soon. :D Enjoy! (I hope)

OPI Banana Bandanna

sheer shimmer yellow creme. I was hoping it'd be similar to China Glaze Lemon Fizz, which it kind of is but it's more yellow and less pastel than it. There's a small hint of shimmer as you apply but not very noticeable. The swatch is 3 coats and no top coat. I love the color but it's too yellow for dark-ish, pinkish redish hands. :P The nail line is still visible after 3 coats, maybe it won't be if I applied top coat, or another layer or a base color before applying Banana Bandanna.

<3katherine

Hey! Get In Lime!

Hello, I hope you all are doing well. I ordered some nail polishes on Victoria's Nail Supply and received them today after their website & the owner (I guess) went on vacation. There was a little mix up with the payment but I finally got my package today! :D I was able to get my hands on 3 (I guess you could say) hard to find polishes :).

Edit: I just realized that it's been 1 year and 10 days since I first blogged here! I'm happy that I've been able to keep up with my blog, meet new people, share my experiences and learn from other bloggers. :) Perhaps my 100 followers giveaway will also be shared with my 1 year blogging anniversary. Should I just have one prize or create multiple prizes? I hope to get some input!

Anyways, here's the first of the three that I was able to swatch:

OPI Hey! Get In Lime!

pastel light jade green. The swatch is 3 coats and no top coat. I love the color despite the fact that I need 3 coats for full coverage. But it was applied unevenly on the first coat and I didn't want my nail line to be visible.

* don't mind my index finger on my 2nd swatch picture, I accident smudged it before I took the picture :X

Hope you enjoyed and I'll come back with more swatches & maybe some nail art to complement them! (:
<3katherine

Pastel Treasure

Hello :). I've been wanting to post for a bit but I didn't know what to do my nails. A lot of bloggers have blogged about Hidden Treasure with various base colors. Some even did pastel bases. So I wanted to see for myself how it would look and I love it!

The base is Eyeko Pastel Polish (10mL bottle). This took me 3 coats because it was always uneven. The formula was alright and applying was a bit ugh since it was always coming out uneven. Even with Seche it was a bit "wet" even though the top coat was fine. Maybe this is bad bottle or something~ I don't know. But I do hope to get more Eyeko polishes since there's free shipping worldwide if you order $55 or more.

Currently, I have 42 followers, instead of doing a giveaway to celebrate 50 followers like I originally planned and with the upcoming of my boyfriend's birthday and tight money situation, I will hold my first giveaway when I reach 100 followers. I only have one polish in mind right now, Sephora 212 but I will come up with more & purchase them when money isn't tight.

My current situation right now isn't well, I've only worked 2 days out of the past 3 weeks and I'm not even scheduled to work next week. T_T The store is cutting hours and they are STILL hiring new people, which pisses me off. All the shifts are going to them or to other people. Hopefully work will get better, if not.. I probably have to find another job.. to support my obsession with nail polish♥

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Oh Happy Happy

So I found 2 bottles of Sally Hansen in my collection as I reoganized them today. In total, I have 115 bottles, not including top coats, base coats, cuticle oil, Essie matte about you and nail art bottles. That's not that bad but I hope I could get more! :)

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Twisted Pink

hot pink with gold shimmer. the formula was excellent, it looked great with only one coat except for VNL (visible nail line) so I thought I'd be better off with 2 coats. This is 2 coats with 1 coat of Seche top coat.

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Wet Cement

light grey with some taupe. the formula was very good and the drying time wasn't that bad. it's about the same time as my OPI's, Essie's and China Glazes. Love the gray! (: Not much to say about it though ahaha.

OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender

lavender with light pink. two swatches. the formula was good and the application was alright. the second coat evened out the first coat because it was applied unevenly. When I did this swatch, I thought why not and attempted leopard print (second attempt; first one was an epic fail). & then I added China Glaze's Medallion (from their glitter collection) on top. I think I'll do this idea later one hehe. I only did the leopard print on one nail because I was trying it out. :P

Hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

TYxINFINITY♥

Laura, you are amazingly awesome. Seriously! First Hidden Treasure and now 2 other surprises in the package! I'm really grateful for your gift and I will return the kindness! :) When I opened the box, I was really confused because the packing was big until I opened it. You threw and blew me away!~ ♥ Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.

And to share my happiness, I have swatches and pictures.

Essie Huckle Buckle

Very sheer dusty grape shimmer. The swatch is 3 coats and no top coat. As you can see it's really sheer, so maybe 4 coats would do the trick, or maybe using black as a base? Nonetheless, it's very unique and I haven't seen anything like this. I'll probably be back with more pictures, perhaps next week?

(1) indoors (2) indoors with sunlight (3) flash (4) indoors with Hidden Treasure

Zoya Kotori

I've done a swatch and review of this but still nonetheless a very beautiful nail polish. It's best described as a "dense bright blue shimmer superimposed over a sheer black base," (official Zoya website) however, it's very sheer. In my previous swatch, I believe I used 3 coats and no top coat and it was good but maybe it could've looked better with another coat. I'll probably come back with a re-swatch of this.

and finally Sally Hansen's Hidden Treasure!

Irregularly shaped flakies with a sheer pearlish clear base. Swatch is 2 coats of Zoya Raven, 1 coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure and 1 layer top coat. Excellent for layering, especially with a black base, it reminds me of China Glaze's limited edition Halloween polish Fortune Teller. I don't own Fortune Teller but Hidden Treasure + black base certainly comes close. The difference I believe is that Fortune Teller has orange glitters and Hidden Treasure has flakies that shine in multiple colors (orange, green, etc). I LOVELOVELOVELOVE Hidden Treasure and I'm so happy that I finally have it (all thanks to Laura again, I could never thank you enough!)

(1) outdoors in sunlight (2) outdoors in shade
(3) indoors with flash

An extra swatch I have for today is OPI's Let Them Eat Rice Cakes.

It's from their 2005 Japanese Collection. It's fairly old, so it doesn't have the pro-wide brush, but that's okay. It is a pale pink creme with lavender undertones. It comes off streaky but after you put top coat you don't notice it. I used only 2 coats and 1 coat of top coat and it looked fine, but if you notice the unevenness, you could go for a third coat. It might be hard to find now, but nonetheless a very nice conservative color but you could do a lot with this one. :)

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Lapis of Luxury

So I'm happy to say that I will finally have my hands on Sally Hansen's Hidden Treasure! :) Thanks to Laura, who sent me it because she read my previous post and wanted to make my day. And of course she did, I was smiling like a little kid getting candy or ice cream. Thank you so much Laura♥ I'm at a loss of words because there are so many kind hearted people out in the world and Laura, you really showed me that there are miracles & dreams, that could come true! No lie and I'm sorry for being corny :P I can't wait to try it out when it comesssssss :D

& with that good news, I did my nails also (:

I bring to you: Essie's Lapis of Luxury, but I had them on since Monday. I wanted to post but didn't because I couldn't think of any design. I attempted clouds, epic fail. :( But I did some random design I remembered from somewhere, sorry for not providing credit. Credit to Pan! (:

The dots were done with a dotting tool & I used:

OPI Alpine Snow

OPI What's with the Cattitude

China Glaze Lemon Fizz

Hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Espresso Your Style!

So I figured out why I haven't been feeling good about blogging. I felt like I lost hope because it's so hard to get my hands on Hidden Treasure. I've been resorting to eBay and it cost so much money there but I want it so bad. After wanting something so bad and almost losing hope, I guess that's what made me so 'bleh' (sorry I can't find a word to describe it) or stop caring about my blog as much as I used to. I also feel uninspired for any design ideas.

So for a few days, I did Zoya Zara as my manicure. I couldn't think of any design to go with it since the color was so beautiful, and I'm not kidding. :p My mom saw my nails and she loves the color and recently I did her toes OPI Rumple's Wiggin'.

Today, well yesterday I decided to do my nails again. I haven't posted about this one yet so it's something new. :) I first tested it out on one nail because I wasn't decided on the color. Here's my manicure: OPI Espresso Your Style!

I love the color because it's dark chocolate/espresso brown with hints of gold shimmer. The first picture is how it looks in real life and the second picture is with flash. The flash picture makes me think of mahogany brown. This was 2 coats of Espresso Your Style! and one coat of Seche Top Coat.

I then added Sinful Colors Green Ocean which is similar to SH's Hidden Treasure but it only shines green and blue. Not bad and I feel a little awkward with my nails but maybe it'll grow on me, if not I'll probably end up taking them off soon.

Katrina from Katrina's Nail Blog talked about the 2 basecoats she's tried. Poshe Base Coat and Nail Life Gripper. I agree with her that Poshe Base Coat works wonderfully. I've been using it ever since I got it from Sally's (probably sometime in May?). My nails are stronger and I really do have weak nails because I inherited that from my mom. They haven't chipped or break as much as they used to. But I'm not sure about Nail Life Gripper because I started using it today. I'll try this out for a month and then I'll post about my experience with it.

Hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

:\

So I haven't been posting because I've been slacking and not really in the mood to post. :\ Yet I don't know why I don't want to... I just didn't feel like it. But I feel like I'm way behind but not really. Maybe it's because I've been so interested in watching tv shows?

I've watched:

- 1st season of Leverage (first cd of the 2nd season came in today from netflix!)

- 5 seasons of Weeds (veryyyy interesting!)

- started the first season of Heroes (SOO interesting and addicting to watch<3!)

Anyways, enough about that. From the last post up until today, I will post up pictures of the nails I did.

1. Indian Nails → China Glaze Strawberry Fields (2 coats) & LA Colors Nail Art Gold Glitter

*Indian because the colors reminded my cousin, hehe :P

2. Glittery Nails → Zoya Raven (2 coats) & China Glaze Nova

3. Random → OPI Jade is the New Black (2 coats) & OPI Alpine Snow

Anyways, I hope you enjoy and hopefully my nail polish mood comes back~

<3katherine