Mesmerize

Hello everyone! I hope your week has been going well so far. :) Today's post is to show my recent mini haul I had on the 4th. The funny thing was, I wasn't expecting to go but the train I normally take home had to go to a different route so I thought, why not since I haven't gone there in a while. To my surprise I ended up with a number of polishes that I love. Here's two today to show and a picture of my haul.

top - OPI My Address is Hollywood, Skull & Glossbones, Save Me, Pink Friday, Did It On 'Em & Fly

bottom - Essie Luxeffects Shine of the Times, Mesmerize, China Glaze CG in the City, Midtown Magic  & Skyscraper and Duri Divas Only

The first polish I'll be showing is Essie Mesmerize, I've actually wanted this polish a lot but I never got it, thinking I had something similar but after getting it and swatching, I LOVE IT! The color and the formula is rich and beautiful!♥ Super smooth application and the color is so glossy! Mesmerize is more like a royal blue creme, which reminds me of OPI Dating a Royal but I feel like Mesmerize had a better formula and DAR is more jelly like. This is shown in 2 coats, however, I could've gone with one coat too.

The next polish I want to show is Essie Luxeffects Shine of the Time, which is similar to Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Hidden Treasure (the flakie one). This is only one coat of SOTT over Mesmerize and I feel like SOTT applies more flakies than HT. However, it's a pearl like clear base filled with tons of flakies that shine orange, red, pink, yellow and green. This is an easier substitute for those who don't have Hidden Treasure, but another option would be Nubar 2010.

Thanks for stopping by and happy polishing! :)
Katherine

p.s. - Did you notice that I'm trying to make my pictures look more professional? Lmao, I've kept it in mind that I should've been using a plain background so that it doesn't overpower the polish but sometimes I get too excited and I don't have the proper background to make the picture really bring out the polish. Tell me if you guys like this!

Blk-Bila-Bong

Hi there! Today's post is a swatch and layering post! 

Here's China Glaze Blk-Bila-Bong by itself in two coats. It's a dark blue base with blue shimmer. 

And here it is layered, starting from left to right:

- Cult Nails Unicorn Puke layered over China Glaze Blk-Bila-Bong

- Cult Nails Unicorn Puke layered over CND Sapphire Shimmer layered over China Glaze Blk-Bila-Bong

- CND Sapphire Shimmer over China Glaze Blk-Bila-Bong

Unicorn Puke over Blk-Bila-Bong is my favoriteeeeee♥

Thanks for stopping by and happy polishing! :)
Katherine

Memories of You.....

Hi everyone, sorry for the late post! >__< I hope you all are doing swell, I know it's been a while since I've last posted. I have done a few swatches for you guys, hopefully I'll be able to resize them sometime when I'm available. And I haven't felt like doing my nails since my nails were breaking and they're on the short side. I'm hoping it'll grow out soon.

Today's post is something I created because this day is a day to remember for me since today was the passing of my aunt. I've cried and cried but I wanted something that would allow me to remember her while still doing something I love, nail polish. My aunt was like my second mother and she treated me like her own daughter. Her daughter, my cousin, is a few months older than me but I feel like we're sisters and we're the closest family member in our entire family. I will always remember the late nights/early mornings that she would wake up and tuck my cousin and I in whenever I slept over at my grandma's house whenever they visited. I will remember the times in Atlanta when she would give me more medicine to take because of my coughing. My aunt and my two cousins were the only family members living in Atlanta while the rest of my family is in the Northeast. So whenever she came, our entire family would come together and she was the piece that connected my entire family together. Without her, our families lived their own lives in different homes. What hurts is that I can't be by my cousin's side, since she's in Atlanta and I'm here in New York. However, my parents are there so I hope she feels a part of me being with her in them. It hurts to see my aunt go, but I know that she isn't suffering as she was during her time here, since she had to battle throat cancer twice. I'm sad that she is no longer with us but I know she's in a better place watching down on my cousin, her brother and the rest of my family, smiling down and taking care of us.

With this, I decided that I wanted to create a nail polish of some that are precious to me, to remind me of her. And I named it Memories of You. Gu Gu, (this is what I call her in Chinese), this is for you and I hope you like it. I love and miss you♥ You'll always be in my heart.

My cousin Sean, my aunt, my grandma and my cousin Pauline

I've layered 2 coats of Memories of You on top of 2 coats of Essie Licorice for this manicure.

Memories of You is a franken which consists of:

• Wet N Wild Clear

• Essie Licorice

• Clarins 230 (a little bit)

• China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway

• OPI Movin' Out

• Star Gazer 308

• Cult Nails Unicorn Puke

Unicorn Puke, Movin' Out, Bermuda Breakaway and Essie Licorice were the main components of this franken.

I love the results of this franken and this is definitely a great reminder of my aunt. The multicolored flakies represents the memories and happiness of my aunt and the dark base represents the sadness of losing my aunt.

I hope you love this polish as much as I do.

Thanks for stopping by,

Katherine

Progress

Why hello there! =P Hope you've all had a good day. Today I will be showing you a cool layering taken in awesome indirect sunlight in my backyard. Lately the sun has been out and shining even past 6 so I'm happy I can squeeze in some nail polish almost each day that I attempt :).


I think I've made better progress in terms of making my nails look nice for pictures because of the brush & acetone trick that bloggers have been using. I knew about it but I wasn't exactly sure which brush to use, especially since I don't really use make up at all so I was pretty clueless until someone {sorry I forgot who!} suggested a concealer brush - so I got mine at ELF for $1 - an awesome steal♥! After I got it in the mail, I've been practicing and I'm definitely improving on that aspect; if only I had a better camera to capture the beautiful nails ;)


Anyways, onto my nails :P


I started off with Nox Twilight Talon which is a dark navy blue with blue shimmer - and it is shown in 2 coats. 

Then I layered it with GOSH Rainbow in 1 coat on top - and voila! Beautiful! :P

And here's a future sneak peak - hopefully coming soon. Do you recognize it? ;) If you have a guess, drop a comment! :P {it makes me happy when I get a lot of comments haha!♥}

Hope you all enjoyed and happy polishing! :)
<3katherine

Layered

Hey everyone! I'm super duper excited because I'm FINALLY done with school and finals and summer is HERE for me! WHOOOOO ;)


Now on to nails - here's the lastest mani. that I've been sporting.


First I used Catrice Hip Queens Wear Blue Jeans, which is a medium denim blue creme with blue shimmer that's kind of hidden, in two coats. 

* sorry for the partially blurry picture, my camera is still acting up & I don't notice it until I've resized the picture, BLAH. {seriously need to invest in a better camera -.-; }


moving on.... I then layered Nfu Oh #51 on top of HQWBJ for this awesome layer mani. that I topped off with top coat :)

I wanted to take pictures of the different colors but my room lighting isn't letting that happen, blah! 


Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed and happy polishing! :D
<3katherine

Cult Nails

Hey everyone! Quick update on my giveaway counting, I'm about half-way done... I believe! Lol and more than 234+ entries including additional entries and minus a few disqualified entries so far. I'm taking a break from studying for 2 exams I have on Thursday to post these long overdue swatches. You've definitely seen them tons of times, but here's my pictures! This set of pictures were actually my re-take of the original pictures that I was not satisfied with. Luckily there was better lighting in this picture and it looks a lot clearer than the original. Hopefully there will be better weather like this more often when my nails grow out. And don't worry I've taken in consideration and thought about what YOU would like to see on my blog. I hope to post about how I take care of my nails in the near future, when my nails grow out because I hate nubbins!

By now, I'm pretty sure that you've heard of Cult Nails, which is a nail polish company a blogger by the name of Maria of R3daily created. She created 4 nail lacquers and she just recently opened up pre-orders for her 2nd collection. And if you haven't gotten the first 4 nail lacquers maybe this will help you decide!

First nail lacquer up is Iconic. Maria describes this as a berry red with gold shimmer and red flakies.  The swatch displays 2 coats and 1 layer of top coat. What a total beauty ;) It worked with 1 coat for me but I used 2 in the swatch just in case.

Next up is Living Waters, Maria describes this as deep navy blue with green and blue micro-glitter. The swatch displays 2 coats and 1 layer of top coat. THIS IS AN AMAZING COLOR - I love ittttt!!<3 This polish was actually Maria's version in creating another nail blogger's color in creating how water looks at night with the shimmer. Definitely a must have and very unique in the nail polish world, in my opinion! I've actually worn this color for swatch and 2 mani's. :P

And here's My Kind of Cool Aid, which Maria describes as purple/gray with a shimmer; a "gravender" :P. The swatch displays 2 coats and 1 layer of top coat. This is definitely a different gray than what I'm used to seeing, which are normal or dusty grays.

Finally, the last one is Quench, which is described as a red polish with a very glossy finish. It definitely can work with different skin tones and the color changes depending on the lighting.

Overall, I love the formula which is B3F and organic =) and the drying time is quick as well. I'm very satisfied with Cult Nails and I'm definitely going to get the next collection!

Hope you enjoyed and I'll definitely try to finish with the giveaway entries as soon as I can (after exams?)
<3katherine

Late Post

Helloooooo everyone! Sorry for not posting in a while, I've been busy a lot but that doesn't mean I've neglected my nails! :P This is from the vault, you might be able to know that it's been a while - Zoya 3 Free Nail Polishes because they reached 20,000 Facebook followers. So here are my swatches, which weren't that great, in my opinion since I'm looking back at these. :P

First one is Astra, it's mostly a clear base with red/fuchsia packed glitter and there's barely any clear spaces. The swatch is 2 coats and 1 layer of top coat, pretty nice and shiny :)

The second, which is my favorite, Crystal. I've been wanting this for a long time after seeing it on blogs *drool* and I jumped on this chance to get it :) It's a metallic blue with gold flecks and silver glitter packed in. VERY BEAUTIFUL. I believe the swatch is 2 or 3 coats and 1 layer of top coat, which looks the same to me :P

The last one is Nova, my least favorite of the 3 :\ but it's a red-purple but more purple tone jelly base with silver glitters packed in. The swatch is 2 coats and 1 layer of top coat.

hope you all enjoyed & happy polishing! :)

<3katherine

p.s. don't forget to enter into my CSN giveaway (ends March 12) and my 300 follower giveaway (ends March 26)! :)

Sequin Sandal or Wagon Trail?

November 24, 2010.

In my previous post about my mani of Sally Hansen CSM Sequin Sandal, a reader asked about how it compares to China Glaze Wagon Trail. And I thought, "Omg! Why didn't I think of that!?" So this post goes out to HappytPumpkin for this request/idea. :)

In a bottle comparison, you can see that there's silver glitters inside Sequin Sandal but that doesn't translate onto the nails.

This is a comparison picture of China Glaze Wagon Trail and Sally Hansen CSM Sequin Sandal. In the following pictures, it is a swatch of 1 coat each. Can you tell which one is which?

Here is the comparison of WT and SS with 2 coats each; first without flash then with flash

(the flash pictures include 1 coat of top coat each)

So if you couldn't tell, Wagon Trail is on my middle and pinky nails and Sequin Sandal is on my index and ring nails. In conclusion, WT has a darker base and SS has more shimmer. They are very similar and perhaps dupes.

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

P.S.: Catrice week (one Catrice polish per day) is coming up =)

Merry Midnight OR Problem Child?

November 22, 2010

I don't know if anyone did this comparison but I bought OPI Merry Midnight a long while back and recently I bought Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Problem Child. Debating on which color I was going to do my mani. I looked at Problem Child, then I remembered something looked REALLY familiar to this and I found Merry Midnight in my stash. So today's post is a comparison post! :)

Here's a picture of the bottles together

Here's a comparison picture at 1 coat of each

Here's a comparison picture at 2 coats of each

Here's a comparison picture at 2 coats of PC and 3 coats of MM.

Here's a comparison picture at 2 coats of PC and 3 coats of MM and 1 coat of top coat on each.

In conclusion: MM is more plum, opaque but shows more flakies than PC. But PC has a darker base and the formula is thicker.

hope this was useful,

<3katherine

Such Beauty

Work has gotten better now, I've gotten two shifts from my friend and finally got scheduled for one day! Lol it doesn't sound good that it's only one day but believe me, it feels good that they actually "want" me to be there and work. More work means more money and more money brings in more nail polishes! Anyways, I love my new uniform that I didn't have to pay for! Jeggings + cute tank and new flip flops♥ So comfortable and cute! Anyways since I liked Calypso Blue so much, I decided to add Hidden Treasure and oh my goodness, what such beauty on my nails! LMAO! I found excellent lighting in my bathroom, since I usually do my nails at night.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Calypso Blue (2 coats)

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Hidden Treasure (1 coat)

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine