ABC Nail Challenge - Greenport

ABC Nail Challenge
Day 7
Essie Greenport

Greenport was a part of the North Fork Collection a while back. At the time of the collection, I did not pick up any of those, CRAZY RIGHT?! Then I saw a ton of swatches of the polishes and I became jealous and full of regret. But then one day, I was able to swap a polish for this lovely beauty on MUA (MakeUpAlley). And now I’m happy that I finally have it! Greenport is a turquoise creme that is opaque in 2 coats. The formula and application was smooth but the drying time can be improved on this though, but no major complaints!

A Few Essie Swatches

Hey everyone! Quick question for those who know: Does anyone know why TransDesign removed all their OPI's from their website? I know that a while back OPI and etailers had problems and OPI wanted to stop supply e-tailers from selling it, and TD said they were "liquidating" their OPI stock but then it continued to suppy the newer collections until now, where they removed even the link and all the polishes from their website. Also, where do you order your OPI's from? :) Anyways I've been wondering about that for the past few days :( Now I don't have any online beauty supply e-tailers that sell OPI to order from wahhhh! 

Here's some recent swatches I did before my ring finger nail broke :( The funny thing is that it was hanging by a small section (painful if I tried to tear/cut it) so then I used crazy glue and the tea bag fabric-material to keep it together but yesterday as I was closing my purse, it broke painlessly! I trimmed the rest of my nails down a bit so that it would be "even" or closer to even with my ring finger being a nubbin. :(

Essie Greenport - I received this from a swap, this actually came out when I was starting to buy nail polish but I passed on it. Afterwards, I totally regretted not getting this one (and Sag Harbor) earlier before it was all sold out and hard to find. Luckily I was able to swap for this from MUA! Greenport is a turquoise teal creme that has a nice jelly-reflective finish and it's shown in 2 coats and 1 coat of top coat. I might even do a comparison post with Chanel Nouvelle Vague and China Glaze For Audrey, to see how it compares to those two to fill my curiousity.

Essie Hot Coco from their Winter 2010 Collection - It's a medium brown that's on the dusty gray side. This is shown in 2 coats and 1 layer of top coat. 

Essie Sag Harbor - Received this from a MUA swap and I'm so glad I finally got it after painfully regretting not getting this. It's on the dusty gray side of light sky blue and it's shown in 2 coats with 1 coat of top coat.

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

Cherry Blossom

Hello there :) I hope you all are having a good day. Here's my recent nail art mani that I've sported. I got a few compliments on these as I wore them so I'm happy to share these with you. I know I haven't been doing much nail art, but trust me I'm trying to work my creativity sparks in my brain! 


Presenting.... my cherry blossom mani! This idea has been floating in my head for a while because I love cherry blossoms, even the Bath&Body Works Japanese Cherry Blossom fragrance! I've held it off for so long because I'd hate to admit it but I didn't have any solid dark brown polish in my collection, AT ALL!! This was very shocking to me and I was able to get my hands on OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys from the Texas Collection. 


For this mani. I did 2 coats of China Glaze For Audrey as my base - added top coat to make it smooth and shiny. Then I used a thin brush and drew branches in strokes using OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys for the brown. After that's dried, I used a dotting tool and made 4 dots with white (OPI Alpine Snow) and 1 dot of pink (China Glaze Something Sweet). After all that's dried, I topped it off with top coat. :)

I think it could be perfected but this is my first try so don't bash me! :3


Hope you enjoyed and happy polishing!
<3katherine

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day to those who celebrate or does something special on this day. :) I spent my morning at work until 2 and then had lunch with the bf :) walked around and shopped around-ish. Saw this cute bag at Aldo which I'm sooooo going to buy the next time I'm near my workplace, lol. Anyways no Valentine's Day mani. but I do have a nail wheel full of colors. These nail polishes were brought back to me from Bangladesh from my bf. :) I love the colors despite wonky brushes and weird-ish formula. But the colors came out great and I don't even know which ones to use first! :P So hard to choose!!

1-5 were from the same brand and I love the formula

I also looooove 8-13! Definitely awesome metallic streaky finish which came out nice. During the process of swatching, it didn't look as nice until the finish product! 

Hope you all enjoyed your Valentine's Day! & happy polishing!

<3katherine

Sisterhood of the Nail Polish Lovers

I deleted the previous post because I forgot to say that in order to be able to enter in to try and get Manhattan 610K, you must be a GFC follower with a blog. You must comment with your GFC follower name, blog url, email and where you're located. THANKS! 

So if you already entered, I'll notify you via email to enter again, my apologies!! 

Please note that you aren't actually keeping the nail polish forever, but passing it along to another person :P

Today I'm sharing a great experience from the nail polish blogging world. You've probably heard about it before from other blogs, such as Kesha's Nail Polish Obsession, Sammy's The Nailasaurus, Jenny's Polishology and Jessika's Polish Insomniac. No, it's not the sisterhood of the traveling pants! :P Yeah, that's right, it's MANHATTAN 610K; the traveling nail polish! :) It first started with Kesha in Germany which later traveled to Sammy in the UK then it made its way to the US with Jenny and Jessika. It's luckily in my hands now and here's my take on Manhattan 610K. Kesha keeps an update on Manhattan 610K's location so you'll see from both of us, to see where it goes next! :)

Manhattan 610K is a medium deep purple creme. I love the color and I wish it was mine forever! But it will make its way to another nail polish lover's hands :) I used 2 coats of Manhattan 610K in the first few swatch pictures and then I used it as the base of my nail art mani. Cupcake design! Yes you've probably seen it before but here's my cupcake designs. Trust me, this is my first time doing it so it took me a while to get the hang of it. :P But don't worry, I practiced with a different base beforehand (still takes getting used to a new design)! Anyways, I used China Glaze For Audrey, Lemon Fizz and Something Sweet as well as OPI Rumple's Wiggin' for the cupcake toppings. :P I also made sprinkles out of those colors and Manhattan 610K, alternating a color out depending on its cupcake topping color.

If you're interested in receiving Manhattan 610K next, 

Please comment with your GFC follower name, blog url, email & where you are located.

Anyone with that's a follower with a GFC name & blog can enter no matter where you are located!

I'll be taking entries until February 5th, 2011.

Stay tuned and find out who will get Manhattan 610K next. :)

Hope you enjoyed & happy polishing! :)

<3katherine

For Audrey

Hey everyone! Hope all is well :) So, the bf is officially gone as of yesterday but today we skype-d and I miss him so much! :( But hopefully time goes by quicker!

Here's one of my all time favorite polishes, no not Chanel Nouvelle Vague but China Glaze For Audrey! This was one of the first batch of nail polishes I got when I started and this is my favorite. No nail art with it yet, but I'll probably do something with it! This is 2 coats and 1 coat of top coat. =) I love love love this. 

Sorry for the half blurry picture :( my camera sucks, need to save money for a new one!

Anyways happy early new year & happy polishing! I'll post up my New Year Mani. tomorrow =)
<3katherine

Catrice Week [Day 5]

Yesterday's hurricane weather let me stay home yesterday and I had so much sleep that my back was aching! :( I didn't know that sleeping too much could cause back pain! I was so in pain that I laid on my bed with more pillows behind me for the incline & laid my laptop on top of a styrofoam bottom that came with the laptop on top of my tummy to watch my dramas! (LOL). I knew that sleeping too much could cause headaches but back pain?! Anyways, my back is feeling much better now, although I woke up late for my class ^____^; and I was late for my second one but I still made it to that one since it's a review class!

Enough blabbering and here's Catrice Week Day 5.

Catrice I Sea You!

dusty turquoise-aqua creme. 2 coats and 1 coat of top coat.

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Unnamed Franken

November 27, 2010

So I finally got my hello kitty stamping plate that I ordered from Born Pretty Store, thanks to Katrina for the code :) I was so surprised that Jessica (from BPS) added the stamper and scraper as well! & Christmas stickers! :) Totally love her and definitely going to order from her again. :) Super sweet and always emails me on updates on my order.

Today's a franken I made :) I don't have a name yet, but I'm open to suggestions. It's a black jelly with blue/turquoise and copper glitters.

This was 3 coats and 1 coat of top coat since it's a black jelly.

Do you like it? :D

<3katherine

Villainous Villains

November , 2010

You may be tired of seeing these, but I'm still in love with them! [Despite the fact that 2/3 of the them have dupes that are a bit cheaper from Orly]. Here is MAC's Villainous Villains Collection. I got 2/3 from Nordstrom and the other one I was able to get in a swap. :) I'm still happy that I have them!

MAC Bad Fairy

magenta with flashy golden red glitter. 3 coats and 1 coat of TC. I love the color because it's so girly, glittery and flashy. :)

MAC Formidable!

vampy plum with blue glitter. 3 coats and 1 coat of TC, but if you're really good, you could get away with 2 coats. I did 3 coats because I wanted to cover it evenly. :P

MAC Mean & Green

dark turquoise with an in-your-face purple glitter. But the glitter changes color depending on the lighting, such as green and gold. The swatch is 3 coats and 1 coat of TC. The funny thing is I love the color of the base when you're removing Mean & Green! ( ^ o ^ )~

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Ode to Summer

November 12, 2010

Even though I hate the summer heat, I miss summer already. :( Here's an ode to summer with China Glaze Poolside Collection! :) First, since they are neons, you should use a white base underneath before applying anything from this collection to avoid VNL. I used one coat of OPI Alpine Snow. Also, just keep in mind that they are MUCH MUCH MUCH brighter in real life. My camera is horrible at capturing colors sometimes -____-;

left to right:

* Kiwi Cool-ada - bright neon green. 3 coats & 1 coat of TC.

* Flip Flop Fantasy - bright neon coral pink with a little orange. 2 coats & 1 coat of TC. Really hard to capture! :( it's more pink & prettier in real life. My second favorite out of the collection :D!

left to right:

* Sun Worshipper - bright neon yellow-orange. 2 coats & 1 coat of TC.

* Pool Party - bright neon red-pink. 2 coats & 1 coat of TC.

left to right:

* Towel Boy Toy - neon turquoise with blue shimmer. 3 coats & 1 coat of TC. Definitely my favorite out of this collection!!?(:

* Yellow Polka Dot Bikini - bright neon yellow. 2 coats & 1 coat of TC.

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Buuurlesque

November 10, 2010

Everyone has probably seen these a ton of times already, sorry for slacking! :( But here are my swatches of the Burlesque Collection by OPI. I've shown about two of them previously but here they are all together. Instead of overloading one post with the swatches for the whole collection, I decided to do a skittles swatch instead so it's easier to see and compare. :) {Sorry for some blurry parts of the picture, my camera isn't the best & I don't have any room to have a lightbox in my room. I'm hoping to save for a better camera though!}

* Ali's Big Break - red with fuchsia glitter. 2 coats & 1 coat of TC.

* Bring on the Bling - mainly gold glitter & other colors. 2 coats & 1 coat of TC.

* Extra-va-vaganza! - mainly orange & silver glitter. 2 coats & 1 coat of TC.

* Glow Up Already! - mainly silver & gold glitter. 2 coats and 1 coat of TC.

* Let Me Entertain You - red-fuchsia and fuchsia glitter. 2 coats & 1 coat of TC.

* Rising Star - orange-copper foil metallic. 2 coats & 1 coat of TC.

* Show It and Glow It! - purple, silver & blue glitter. 2 coats & 1 coat of TC.

* Simmer & Shimmer - turquoise blue and silver glitter. 2 coats & 1 coat of TC.

* Sparkle-icious - gold, purple and blue glitters. 2 coats & 1 coat of TC.

* Take the Stage - reddish bronze foil. 2 coats & 1 coat of TC

* Tease-y Does It - deep vampy plum with red microshimmer. 2 coats & 1 coat of TC.

* The Show Must Go On! - hot reddish pink shimmer. 2 coats and 1 caot of TC

My favorites in this collection is Simmer & Shimmer and The Show Must Go On! :)

PS - I'm thinking of having another give away, perhaps at 250 or 300 followers :P I haven't decided yet but just putting that out there! ~ Don't forget to check out Necessary Nail's Facebook page! You can also find the Facebook link on the Facebook Icon at the top right along with the Twitter link to Necessary Nails!

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Go Green!

Yay! I took my exam today and now I feel less stressed! (for now..). Today's post is my last awareness post for now, green for depression awareness.

from left to right:

- Zoya Midori - lime green creme with gold shimmer. 2 coats and 1 coat of top coat.

- Essie Turquoise & Caicos - turquoise jelly creme. 2 coats and 1 coat of top coat.

- China Glaze Zombie Zest - olive green glitter. 3 coats and 1 coat of top coat.

on another note, I got some nail mail the day before yesterday. :)

China Glaze Poolside Collection (top row)

China Glaze Tuned Up Turquoise
China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway

China Glaze Shower Together

China Glaze Adore

China Glaze Elephantastic Pink

OPI DS Extravagance (extra goodie♥)

Thank you so much Chou Khang!! You got me such an amazing package that got me all giggle-y inside! I hope you enjoy the Inglot palette♥.

annndd

Catrice Clay-ton My hero

Catrice Be My Millionaire

Catrice Blue's Brother

Catrice I Scream Peach!
Catrice Big Spender Wanted!

Catrice London's Weather Forecast

Essie Jackie Oh My

An awesome swap with Kassandra on makeupalley. Totally awesome!!! Looove it.

Overall: I love all my nail mail! I can't wait to try these on♥ Ahh I was so giddy inside when I was opening the packages =P

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Birthdaaay

Yesterday was my birthday :)♥ I couldn't post yesterday because I was tight on time but here's my post and about my birthday (if you care).

I worked from 9:30 - 1:30 & went to take the subway but the train took forever (damn weekend service changes!!) to Murray Hill [34th St] to get my eyebrows threaded. I grabbed some food on the way and again the train takes forever & it doesn't even go to my stop so I had to walk from the closest station. -_- I got home was online for a bit and did my birthday manicure (pictures below), showered & as I tried to clip my hair it messed up my thumb nail on the ends but it's okay no one noticed! :P The place I wanted to go for my birthday turns out the wait was 1 - 1 1/2 hour wait (they don't take reservations) so we went to this other Japanese place and even though it was crowded we had a GREAT time. Afterwards we went hookah and everyone was sooo done! I had to meet my friend because she had a family dinner & so we wanted to go to Crumbs but we missed it by a few minutes :( So we walked and were about to go to Max Brenners for dessert, long wait so I ended up getting my birthday "dessert" from an ice cream truck LOL. And the walk to there and back was amazing. I'm so glad my birthday was one of the best birthdays despite the lack of planning. But I had an amazing time! And if you read this, thanks for reading it and caring =) Oh and on top of an amazing birthday, a little mosquito decided to give me presents -_- 5 mosquito bites, yay.

I've been lemming for Chanel nail polishes for a while and I wanted to spoil myself. Of course I wanted Jade but that's kind of impossible so I got Nouvelle Vague on eBay. It wasn't that bad the cost + REALLY quick shipping. I've read that the formula was thick and that many people didn't like it because of that. But here's my review:

Chanel Le Vernis Nouvelle Vague

robin egg turquoise. It's 2 coats of NV and 1 coat of Seche top coat. The formula was kind of thick but you could still work with it if you're patient and trying to make the best of it. My ring finger got bubbles for some reason [-.-] but I added another coat of NV and it was all better & covered up. :P I absolutely love the color and I'm happy that it was a good experience with my first Chanel. I'm definitely planning to get more in the future. The third picture is an outdoors with sunlight photo and the first two pictures were taken in my room with indirect sunlight.

Don't forget to enter into my giveaway!
& I'm definitely taking the suggestions to heart and I will post more nail arts & better pictures! I didn't get to do anything special for my birthday mani. since I was rushing.

Hope you enjoyed and happy nails!
<3katherine

[Part II] Barielle Swatches

This is the last group of Barielle's that I got. :) I really like the bottle that you'll see in some of my swatches. It's a glass water bottle that I got from a restaurant. I love the bottle and I filled it up with paper stars that I made a long time ago.

Belly Dance. a light taupe shimmer. It looks really cute but it looks neutral compared to my skintone T__T; maybe if I get whiter over the winter haha! Or whitening soap ;) This is 2 coats and no top coat.

Blackened Bleu. the name says it all, except that the black is jelly. The thing I love about it is that the blue shimmers A LOT. :) The swatch is 3 coats and 1 coat of top coat.

Myrza's Meadow. a lime yellow green jelly with gold glitter that shines rainbow. I read a review about it and someone said it was one of the worse ones from the collection to work with. But generally, I had no problems with this nail polish except for the VNL - it shows the white tip but if you have short nub nails, you'll have no problems. The swatch is 2 coats and 1 coat of top coat. A little bumpy when it dries, but that's no problem if you always seal your manicures with top coat :). Still love it though! *my picture might not be as good; probably will redo this swatch.

Slate of Affairs. medium grayed out cornflower blue water-y base but not jelly (probably glass flecked; I'm no good with identifying finishes =x)with blue shimmer. OH HOW COULD I HAVE DOUBTED GETTING YOU? :( I'm sorry but I'm glad I decided to get you. :) You're totally awesome and beautiful. The swatch is 2 coats and no top coat.

Swizzle Stix. a greyed out sky blue/turquoise thin but not jelly base. This reminded me of Brucci's Kathy's Baby Blues but then that was more sky blue than this. :P The swatch is 2 coats and no top coat on my index and middle fingers & 3 coats on my ring and pinky fingers (for full coverage on my nail tips). Good formula, not hard to apply though it seemed a bit "water-y" but not really.

Overall: Barielle's formula is a thick, but mostly it's opaque when you apply it. You get a glob of polish when you're about to apply but it won't ruin your manicures. I still like the formula a lot despite the 'thickness.'

5 more followers until my giveaway!! & tell me your favorites in this group :)

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Rockin' Blue

I'm really starting to like Brucci! $2.79 a bottle, isn't that bad. The color range is alright, although it's mostly pinks and reds. But there are new bottles that come in!

Brucci Gianna's "Rockin" Blue

it's similar to a teal/turquoise but since I'm not good with variations of the basic colors I looked it up! :) Gianna's "Rockin" Blue is close to a misty turquoise. My camera is stupid and can't pick up a lot of the colors. But once I put it on, I loved it! And the application? EXCELLENT! Seriously I think I'm going to get more Brucci's! The swatch is 2 coats and no top coat!

Any interested or curious bloggers that would like to try out Brucci? Send me an email and maybe we can arrange a swap or something! I'll try to get a picture of the colors on their shelves for you so it might be easier to see what I can get. :)

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

Double SOTD&NOTD

Yesterday I was unable to do the sotd & notd because after my classes I had to watch a Broadway show which made me end up coming home at 11:30pm-ish. So to make up for it, today's a double sotd & notd :)

Day 3 - looked at Ricky's but no urge to buy nail polishes. :] Hope I could keep this up and keep myself sane! :P

Swatches Of The Day (2):

(top - indoors; bottom - outdoors)

Zoya Ava : two coats no top coat, peachy pink. Ava is really cute and easy to apply. Really hard to capture in the sunlight since it kind of blended in with my skintone. But nonetheless, a good french manicure color! :)

Zoya Charla : I believe this is from Zoya's new glitter collection. it's turquoise blue glitter with iridescent green, yellow and blue-green colors seen in different viewpoints. My camera couldn't pick up the iridescent colors but it's soo beautiful. It's one of my favorites out of my Zoya batch. :)♥ The swatch has two coats with no top coat.

Nails Of The Day (2):

Zoya Ava

LA Colors Nail Art Black

LA Colors Nail Art Gold Glitter

LA Colors Nail Art White

Zoya Charla

LA Colors Nail Art Gold Glitter

(2) 6mm Clear Rhinestones

hope you enjoyed,

<3katherine

March Madness Update

I haven't posted in a while and I thought I'd update my blog on what I've been doing recently. I'm planning to do more tutorials with the haul of China Glaze and Essie polishes that I got previously however, 24 hours isn't enough so these will come slowly. :( So here's an update on my purchase, nail sets/design & tutorial!

recent polish purchase:

- American Apparel Cotton

- American Apparel Hunter

- American Apparel Passport Blue

AND:

* Side story: I haven't shopped at the nail supply store that I've gone to in months & I came across the small place in middle school. So I entered the store and the workers greeted me with a hello. As I looked around - I couldn't decide what polishes to get. I went around and around for about 3-4 times between Dante, OPI and Essie and I hear the door opening and a few girls coming in. I went to look at the Dante polishes where they were and the male worker asked them if they were nail technicians or professionals & that they only sell to them. So I thought in my head, sh*t that means I can't buy anything :(. The girls immediately left after that since they looked obviously a student probably in middle school - since I used to go to middle school around there. After I continued to look around and gathered my courage in hopes of being able to buy the 3 polishes I selected. And to my happiness and hopes, I was able to! Thank goodness because I am no nail technician, student or professional.

-♥-

recent nail sets:

(1) Last week's nails

Base: American Apparel Cotton with black nail art to make zebra stripes and topped with Essie Matte About You. - I don't own any whites in my nail polish collection so I decided to get Cotton. It's a very nice white that doesn't make my fingers and hands look weird. The formula is thin since it is from American Apparel. The application was good - not bad. I believe I used 2-3 coats of Cotton to make sure the color was even. I used Essie's MAY to top it off and I absolutely love ittt!~ ^ o ^ The whole design came out so nice & perfect (especially my ring finger which I'm most proud of). The finishing touch was very nice and smooth. The other fingers were also really nice except that the black kind of got smudged when I put on the MAY, since it wasn't fully dry, but nonetheless, one of my favorite designs.

(2) For this week's nails

Base: Essie Turquoise & Caicos with white polka dots and topped with Essie Matte About You. - A beautiful color but formula was very thin. This was 3 coats but still came out nice. Not troublesome to apply. I may have overdone the polka dots a bit as I went along, lol! But it's okay - I adore this plain set. The MAY flattened the set but made it very cute. I received a compliment on them hehe ^ o ^ first one since I've started college in August - sad, I know.

-♥-

From the last post - I've only done different sets on the Misa polishes I have - here's a preview / final look & I'll be posting up tutorials on how to do them as soon as I have the posts typed and ready to go. Also there will be more tutorials in the future since I recently restocked on plastic tips to present my tutorials on. :D♥

For my second tutorial, I will present the steps {through pictures} of how I made the first design of the 5 nails in the picture above.

need:

~ Essie Ridge Filler {base coat}

~ Misa Wishing on a Star

~ Color Club NA54 Neon Yellow {nail art}

~ Kiss Nail Art White

~ Kiss Nail Art Silver Glitter

~ Seche Vite Quick Dry Top Coat

prep, base coat and two coats of WOAS.

color club nail art na54 and make swirl-ish strokes

use kiss nail art white to fill in the empty spaces around the neon yellow strokes

nail art silver glitter over the middle white strokes

white dots {mine are uneven x_x} and seal with top coat! ~

Until next time♥~,
KATHERINE*