Do You Think I'm Tex-y holo-fied!!!

Hello beauty bloggers and all others! 

Around 2 weeks ago I ordered Nfu Oh #62 and #66 holos off Fabuloustreet. I'm so psyched to get them and try them out!!!!

So in the meantime, I've had to quench my thirst for holos in another way. I made my own! Well, sorta...not quite frankening, more like layering. ^_~

Supplies used! L-R: Orly Bonder, Do You Think I'm Tex-y, Margarita, Wireless, Insta-Dry Topcoat

Base colour is 3 coats OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y from the OPI Texas Collection. This is my very first and only (for now) sorbet shade! Then 2 coats of Bobbie Margarita, then 2 coats of China Glaze Wireless. So many coats!!! LoL! All pictures were taken in sunlight, no flash.

Blurry shot to show off holo-ness!

Sorry for the dry hands/cuticles etc. *sigh* It's a chronic disease. -_- Oh and I've jumped on the Disqus bandwagon...it's so much easier to reply to the comments!

Let's compare!

So Fiona from Swatch and Learn had posted up swatches of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Blue It. Seeing the swatches reminded me of OPI DS Magic and then of course I wanted to see how they compared.

Yay, my first comparison post! All shots were taken beside a window, no flash.

Bottle shots! Blue It on the left, DS Magic on the right. Right away you can tell the difference. DS Magic has so much more....magic going on in the bottle. There's blue and then purple and then you're just lost in the mix.

But of course the "magic" doesn't really translate that well onto the nail. Don't get me wrong...it's still purdy but I wouldn't mind seeing the purple outside of the bottlel!

DS Magic on the left, Blue It on the right. Magic needed 3 coats to be fully opaque, Blue It needed 2.

So while I was doing comparisons, I remembered I had wanted to do this one as well! Dupe alert?

Wet n Wild FastDry in SaGreena the Teenage Witch on the left, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Emerald City on the right. They look fairly similar right?

Well that's pretty much where the similarities ended. StTW looked like that with 2 coats and Emerald City looked like that with 2 coats. See the difference? StTW is so sheer, I couldn't stand it! Emerald City just applied way better.

Here's a shot indoors with natural light, no flash. 

L-R: Blue It, DS Magic, Emerald City, SaGreena the Teenage Witch.

So here ya go Fiona, this one's for you! :)

From #haulfail to #haulwin!!!

Last time, I blogged about how I gave my boyfriend a list of things to buy for me since he was in Buffalo.

Well...he didn't get me anything. I know...WOMP WOMP right?

Poor guy though was going on a frenzy trying to look for things for me. He felt really bad about not being able to get me anything. =( Sooooo he proposed that he take me to my trusty nail place and he said to pick whatever I wanted and he'll get it for me! YAY! Of course I told him to help me pick some colours out that he would like me to wear, and he said yes.

So in we go and his jaw dropped. He was like "You were sending me on a wild goose chase all around Buffalo to find you nail polish and you have all this right here?!!?!?" Of course he didn't understand that there are some brands that are not available in that little nail place, but he didn't care at that point. LOL. 

I ended up getting 5 bottles and he picked the China Glazes out for me. =) They all totaled up to $22CAD.

(Without flash)

L-R: OPI Do You Think I'm Tex-y?, China Glaze Tree Hugger, First Mate, Midnight Ride, Secrect[sic] Peri-wink-le

(With flash)

 Secrect?? Typo alert!! LOL

After purchasing, we met up with some friends and had dinner at a Chinese resto and watched "Sucker Punch" after. I was like 0_0 the whoooole time! Sensory overload! Lots of fight scenes, weapons, imaginary creatures, sick characters, thigh high stockings and short skirts!! We watched it on IMAX so it was pretty nuts!

OPI DS Extravagance Re-visited

Hello everyone!! I've decided that I wasn't fair to my OPI DS Extravagance before. I used it for my NYE Mani and I slapped on a bunch of crap on top of it. It didn't have its chance to shine!

So this time, I let it have the spotlight and didn't stamp anything on top.

These two pictures were taken indoors with the setting sun. I tried to catch the last bit of it before it went down completely.

This photo was taken outdoors, with the sun smiling down on me. =) I am so ashamed of the state of my cuticles and hands, they're so flippin' dry!

This polish is AH-MAZING! I love the colour, application was flawless and although it's not a linear holo, you can still see its holo-ness.

I also have DS Magic but that one's more glitter than holo. Womp womp womp.

I looked at my inventory of my nail polishes and so far I've got 135. Out of 135, I've got 68 untrieds. =S I've been a really good girl and I haven't bought ANYTHING in a while. I'm gonna get through those untrieds yet! But my loving BF is in Buffalo right now and of course, I HAD to send him a list of nail polishes and make-up that I wanted. LOL! I sure hope he picks me up some. I'll update you guys if I do get a haul from him.

Valentine's Day mini-haul

Belated Happy Valentine's Day to you all!!

So my bf and I celebrated on Sunday because he had to work yesterday. He took me shopping at Sephora, went out to dinner at our fave lil hole-in-the-wall that serves Thai and Vietnamese food and watched Gnomeo and Juliet! So at Sephora, he told me to pick out what I wanted (all within his budget of course) and I came out with these beauties!

Left: Tarina Tarantino Dollskin Eye Primer

Middle: Tarina Tarantino Fleur De Lash mascara in Black Opal

Right: Tokidoki Gelato Lip Balm Stain

Of course as soon as I purchased them, I tried them on! The eye primer is very good. It made my oily lids look matte and clean. Unfortunately, didn't have any eyeshadow on me so I can't test it for creasing, fading etc. 

The mascara was fantastic! Those who know me, know that I'm such a stickler for mascara. I was actually worried that I wouldn't like this because my first choice was Fairydrops Scandal Queen mascara. Unfortunately, they were sold out. =( So I quickly looked around and this caught my eye. This mascara is DEFINITELY buildable with minimal clumping for me. I still went through my eyelashes with a comb of course just to help fan them out. But I love love love it! No matter how many coats I put on, my lashes never had that crunchy feeling, they still remained soft.

The lip balm stain is also a big win for me. The shade I chose is Donutella, which is a sheer coral strawberry. The packaging is adorable first of all. I've always liked Tokidoki ever since I first saw it. The balm itself is fantastic! It glides very smoothly on my lips and the colour is very apparent!

Chel also picked this up for me at the Winners that she went to. Color Club Dark Romance The Matte Collection minis!!! 

L-R: Matte Top Coat, Alabaster, Smoke and Mirrors, Dark Romance

I have resisted matte polishes for so long because I never thought that they would look good on me. I wanted my nails shiny and eye-catching! But as soon as I put these babies on...I died a little. It opens up a different world of possibilities for nails! And of course, Chel said the proverbial "I told you so." I'm currently sporting Dark Romance with Hidden Treasure and matte top coat.

After our night out, we stopped by Walmart and did a little bit of grocery shopping. I stayed away from the cosmetics department until an idea popped into my head. I realized that I had no space for my polishes with the kits that I currently own, especially with 21 more bottles of polish coming my way! See previous kit post. So I picked up a Caboodles "doctor's bag".

L: Konad supplies, top coats, stripers, polish remover, cotton squares

M: China Glaze, OPI, Color Club

R: Sally Hansen, Wet n Wild, Joe, Minis, Sula and all others

China Glaze, OPI and Color Club

Sally Hansen, Wet n Wild, Joe, Sula, Minis, CQ, Rimmel, Maybelline

Next post will be my Valentine's Day mani and current one.

'Til the next Konadicure!

More V-day Konadicures and failures

Hello beauty bloggers!! Hope you're all doing well. 

I've got 3 Konadicures to show you, 2 I like and 1 I am ashamed of. 

1st is a base colour of China Glaze Short and Sassy and stamped with Sally Hansen in Red Chrome. 

Taken in indoor light. It just won't photograph properly and my skin has such  weird colour. You can see tipwear because I've had this on for 4 days when I took these pictures.

Taken with flash. Short and Sassy is such a beautiful colour! I used the images from plates m64 and m71 and alternated the images on my fingers. Jay really liked this one. =) He remembered the bandanicure design from m64.

Please don't hold this next mani against me. I don't know what came over me that I thought it would work out. This was done at midnight so I'll just use that as an excuse.

Photo taken in natural light. Base colour was OPI The Show Must Go On. Super blingtastic polish that required 2-3 coats for opacity. Tips were stamped with Rimmel London Pure Silver.

I sent a pic of this to Jay and I said "I'm not sure about this one. I don't like it." He replied with "Yeah you're right. You should've kept the other one." =( FAIL.

So after having this for less than a day, I was determined to create a better one. And out came "Black Lace and Ruby Pumps".

First a swatch of China Glaze Ruby Pumps in natural light. Can I just say all the hype about this polish is TOTALLY DESERVED. I am so in love with this colour and the glitter is just amazing!!

I added 2 different stamps to imitate the faux lace design that Beautopia had done. First I used Wet and Wild Black Creme to stamp the fishnet image from m57 then added the floral pattern on m71.

Close up shot so the beautiful glitters can come out and play.

From afar this looks like a vampy red with glitters. But up close you can so see the lace design and the glitters peeking through!

I'll try to keep this on until Thursday and I'll change my manicure on Friday for V-day weekend!!  So excited for Thursday night, Jay and I are gonna be watching our very first live hockey game!! And I'll be rocking this mani while cheering for the Leafs.

'Til the next Konadicure!

Early V-Day, Hidden Treasure and giveaways!

As promised, here are pics of my early Valentine's Day mani. My hands are crying out for moisture and even though I try to give it to them...they still end up so dry. =( I gotta get me some of that Lemony Flutter!

I used China Glaze Exotic Cranberry for a base colour and I stamped with Sally Hansen Chrome Pens in Pink Chrome. 

This was taken in indoor light, no flash. The image was from plate m65. I love designs like that because they're very forgiving. You can just fill in some blanks if ever there were any and the design would still look good. I think this was my shortest duration for a mani because I removed it after two days and changed it to...

THIS. 

This is one coat of OPI Russian Navy and one coat of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. RN is sooo deceiving. When you look at the bottle all you see is purple, purple, purple. When you put it on the nail, BAM there's the navy blue. And you're left wondering how in the world that happened. It's definitely a one-coater if you apply a thick coat on. I'm just dreading to remove this because I have a feeling it's going to be a PITA.

Both of these pictures were taken in natural light, no flash. Look at all the pretty flashing colours! Green, orange, a bit of gold...plus it all depends on what your base colour is. The last time I sported HT I wore it over CQ Mystical which is a purple and the flakies also flashed purple! I looooove HT and I wish I had a back-up bottle!

Do you guys own Hidden Treasure or any flakie? What do you guys think about it?

Before I forget, The Lacquerista is having her Black Shatter giveaway. 

(Picture taken from her blog)

All you have to do is fill out a form that lets her know what name you follow her with and you get another entry if you tweet/blog/post about her giveaway.

The Art of Nails is also having her 100 followers giveaway! 

She`s giving away MAC Mean and Gree, Orly Rockin`Rockette, Nox Sangria and Sephora by OPI mini Leaf Him at the Altar.

(Picture taken from her blog)

You get an extra entry if you sign the petition to stop human trafficking!

'Til the next Konadicure!

Another mini-haul and give-away entry!

*sigh* I've got to kick this addiction. :( It would be ok if I was funding it in another way besides my full-time job but that's not the case. I've got to find a way to make money off my polishes!!

Chel and I visited the store again yesterday and instead of only coming out with one polish that I wanted which was OPI You Don't Know Jacques, I came out with 5 and none of them was YDKJ!! The store owner is such a grumpy guy and we groan everytime we see him there. The 1st and 2nd time we went, the clerk didn't care what we did and we looked through the boxes. The 3rd time we went, the grumpy guy was there and basically yelled at us for looking through the boxes. He said that all the colours were out on display. Well, we basically caught him in that lie because the OPI Unripened we both bought were from the boxes and cannot be found on the displays. So yesterday, I had one bottle of polish in my hand and he passes by us and says "You know you have to spend $20 right?!?" I'm like "Yeah, I know." If you spend less than $20, you pay full price for each bottle of  polish, instead of their price. So of course, I had to pick more polishes to make up $20. *sigh*

That's enough story-telling...on to the pictures!!

Here's my mini haul from left to right:

OPI Russian Navy

China Glaze Exotic Cranberry

China Glaze Starboard

China Glaze Blue Island Iced Tea

OPI Diva of Geneva

Thumb to pinky (2 coats each, no base or top coat):

OPI Diva of Geneva

China Glaze Starboard

OPI Russian Navy (looks black but it's not!)

China Glaze Exotic Cranberry

China Glaze  Blue Island Iced Tea

With flash. 

  

Here's a picture of almost all of the nail polishes I own. There were about 20 more upstairs that weren't in my kit. It doesn't look like much to all the professional bloggers out there but for a regular girl like me, it's a lot!!! 

Amanda from Fiercely Fresh Fingertips has a February Sweets Give-away!

 Her prizes are: 

ELF Glitter Glam
Love & Beauty pack of 3 Nail Files

ELF  Twinkle

Maybelline Sweet Thing/ Salsa Sun Ltd Ed. Five-pack includes:

-       Goody Plum Drop

-       Pink Sophistication

-       Minty

-       Caliente Coral

-       Sweetie Pie

Color Club Uptown Girl

Zoya Adina

OPI DS Glamour

Color Club High Society

BBW PocketBac in Strawberry Cupcake

You can have up to 6 entries if you're a follower (+1), if you blog about it either on a post (+2) or sidebar (+1), add her blog to your blogroll (+1) and if you have a cute V-day story to share (+1)!

Update and hello to new readers!!

Hello beauty bloggers!! Hope everyone's doing well. Just wanted to say a quick hello to my new readers! Thanks for following!

I've got two Konadicures that I wanted to show you. I used Orly Bonder as a base coat and Seche Vite as a top coat for both.

1st is a base colour of OPI DS Magic. Instead of stamping though, I took a cosmetic wedge and applied a diagonal french tip using Color Club Worth the Risque.

This was taken with flash to show the pretty shimmer. It's blue with some pretty purple shimmer that's very obvious in the bottle but you gotta look closely to see it on the nail. No problems with application, cleanup and removal was a PITA though.

Taken without flash in natural light. You can't even see the holo-ness of Worth the Risque but it's there!!

2nd Konadicure is with China Glaze Jolly Holly and Sally Hansen Color Quick Chrome Pens in Green Chrome. The image was from plate m65. I got the awesome idea from Erika, from her Stamping with Sally post. Thank you!

This photo was taken in natural light. I am so in love with Jolly Holly!! I was initially gonna stamp all my nails but then when I saw how gorgeous the colour was, I dwindled down to one nail. The Sally Hansen Chrome pens are awesome for stamping!! You just have to be careful that the brush doesn't get dry otherwise you're gonna have a hard time with it. 

'Til the next Konadicure!!

Re-cap

Ok here are 3 Konadicures that I've done within a week and a half. Chel and I have been bad and we went on another trip to the nail art supply place. We did 2 trips within 3 days. I bought OPI in DS Magic and Charmed by a Snake, China Glaze in Cashmere Creme, Swing Baby and Short and Sassy. PLEASE please forgive the horrible condition of the areas around my nails. They're so dry due to the winter cold and also from my nail polish remover. 

The first is what I call "Below Deck I've got Pure Silver" Base colour is China Glaze in Below Deck from the Spring 2011 collection. The stamping nail polish is my NEW FAVE, Rimmel London's Pure Silver. Sorry Rave Review Critique...you've been pushed from your #1 position of Stamp Champ. Pure Silver has a chrome-like finish...I don't even know if that's the right way to describe it!

With flash.

Indoor light. The image used was from m57.

2nd Konadicure is called "I've got Pure Silver. Sshhh Plum's the Word!" (Gosh...I'm sorry, that's the best I could come up with) Base colour is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Plum's the Word. I was really feeling cremes this past week! Stamping colour is again Pure Silver.

Taken without flash in natural light.

3rd Konadicure is "Side-Saddle on a Cheetah" (or Leopard...whichever animal has those spots) Base colour is China Glaze in Side-Saddle from the Rodeo Diva collection. It was such a weird colour...brown but with some purple and pretty shimmer.

Swatch taken in natural light.

Taken with flash. Look at the pretty shimmer come out and say hi!

So me being currently obsessed with my new #1 stamp champ decided to add spots from image plate m57.

Natural light.

With flash to show the shimmer.

Sorry for the barrage of pictures...I get so lazy uploading them that I end up with a whole bunch!! I've even got a new Konadicure on now but I won't shove all the pics in one post...this one can wait. :)

'Til the next Konadicure!

One of many...

Update time! Please forgive me for taking my sweet time. I've got lots to show you so please be patient with me!

As always, base coat is Orly Bonder and top coat is Seche Vite.

First here is my NYE Konadicure. Please forgive the state it's in...I took these pictures RIGHT before I removed it to do my next one. This has been about 5 days after I first did it.

Base colour was my highly anticipated OPI DS Extravagance. I had used image plate m72 for my index, middle and pinky fingers and m77 for my thumb and ring fingers. I stamped with my # 1 stamp champ, Sally Hansen in Rave Review Critique. I also used Color Club in gold holo glitter to outline some of the images.

My 2nd Konadicure was done after mine and Puppy's ginormous haul after visiting this lil hole in the wall that sells massive amounts of nail polish for half the price of beauty salons!! Forgive these pictures...I don't know why I was in such a hurry to take them. I'm either too excited to take the pictures or leave it til the end right before I remove the polish!

I used China Glaze in Jitterbug for the index, middle and pinky fingers and China Glaze in Black Diamond for the thumb and ring fingers. I then used the argyle design from image plate m60 and stamped it with Sally Hansen in Celeb City.

Of course after a couple of days I wanted to change it up a little so I added China Glaze Wireless (holographic top coat) on top of Jitterbug. I loved the end result!

Last but not least, here is my "Applause" was heard at "Lincoln Park After Dark". This picture was taken after 5 days of wear.

Base colour is OPI's Lincoln Park After Dark. The image used was the houndstooth design on m63. I used Sally Hansen in Applause to stamp. I used the full nail design on my thumb and ring, but only half of it on the tips of the rest of my fingers.

My current Konadicure has just been updated about half an hour ago, but pictures will be saved for another post. I'm using China Glaze in Below Deck from their Spring 2011 collection for a base colour and stamped with Rimmel London's Pure Silver (a new stamp champ discovery!).

'Til the next Konadicure!