Black Satin

Hello Glam Geeks!

For the past two weeks, I've been keeping my eye on some clearance nail polish at Target. I needed a black creme and there was a Rimmel black in the clearance bin, but it was only 30% off. That wasn't enough for me to buy it. Finally it went 50% off. I snatched it up! I've had it for a few days but finally got around to trying it today.

Black Satin is a gorgeous creme polish that applies beautifully. If you do it correctly, you could get perfect opaque shine in one coat. I did two. I even cleaned up my nails before photos this time.

This shine is brought to you without top coat. Oooh. Aahh. Or something. ;)

 

Decided to thrown some Matte Magic on this mani. Ooh la la.

By the way, I'm getting low on Seche Vite and I'm thinking of trying a new top coat. My obvious question for you, my glamorous geeks, is: What's your favorite, must have, to die for top coat?

Stay chic!

Kayla

Eyeliner and Nail Polish

Hi!!!

I've got quite a bit to fit in here today. So I'm just gonna get right into it! Remember back when I got my Hautelook Haul? I was extremely excited to use the Urban Decay liquid eyeliner in Gash, and I finally got around to it! A-ma-zing! Application was great and it looked fabulous!! My grandma even asked if it was available in brown! haha Love her! Take a look at the eyeliner:

It's a lovely metallic red liner. I didn't add any eyeshadow over it because it took away from its glory. (looked matte with shadow, I wanted it to pop!)

Alright! On to polish! I got these four polishes from Walgreen's and I was so excited because:

1. Sinful Colors was on sale for $1.59 and

2. Wet N Wild had new colors out! (only $1.99)

I knelt at the Sinful display forever trying to pick the colors I wanted. And then I walked away to think and look at the other displays and the sales lady told me to go back over there for more 'exotic' colors. She was really sweet and asked to see what I was picking out. I finally found 3 Sinful polishes and one Wet n Wild to buy. My total was only $6.94. I did a happy dance out to my car, well not really but I had to fight the urge. 

 

L-R: Nocturnal, What's Your Name, Let's Talk, Boom Boom

Here's a picture that's more true to color for Let's talk and Boom Boom:

I lied. Boom Boom is not that peachy looking. Its very bright. But that is exactly how Let's Talk looks. Gorgeous.

First up: Boom Boom.

 I love the name, except I want to add a Pow! at the end of it (Damn Black Eyed Peas!). It's a gorgeous pink creme that is vibrant and a great spring color. Actually, the sales lady picked it up and said, "Well that says Spring to me!" I laughed. She was great. Anyways, application was good, a little thin but easy to work with. Only two coats for full opaque.  This is without cleanup or a top coat. 

 

Indoors, flash, true to color

Let's Talk: When I saw this on the shelf I immediately thought of the H&M Fashionista swatches Michelle from Lacquerized posted not too long ago. I don't know if it's a dupe for it or not (It doesn't look like it has as much blue in it.) but until I can find out, Let's Talk is my Fashionista (Now that I look back at Michelle's post, Let's Talk is too purple, not enough blurple). A great purple shimmer that was easy to work with. I'm loving the Sinful formula! I'm in love with this polish. Two coats to perfection. Excuse the zoomed out picture, it was the only way to get an in focus, true to color photo.

Beautiful. Except for the smudge on my index. haha

Nocturnal: Another great name. I have been searching for the perfect dark blue polish with no shimmer. I have found it. It's a wonderful dark dark blue creme. Two coats to opaque. Easy to work with, not as thin as Boom Boom, definitely happy with the formula. This is part of the Wet N Wild Craze collection, the sign said it was the "trendy" colors. All the colors were beautiful but the choir started singing when I saw Nocturnal.

Almost black in the pictures. In real life you can tell that its blue. This was the best pic. Blah.

What's Your Name: The name cracks me up because when I saw it my thought was: Oooh what are you called? haha It's a stunning black jelly with teal micro glitter. In love with it in the bottle. On my nails, eh, well you can't really see the glitter. Two coats and it was opaque, but maybe if I had done more the glitter would have shown up more? Oh well. Happy with it though! Don't get me wrong, because in the right light that glitter comes out and GORGEOUS. haha I just wish it was that way all the time.

 

Caught a little bit of teal glitter on the middle nail. 

 

Can you see the hint of green? That's what the glitter does to it. 

That was my first Sinful Colors experience. I was impressed at the quality for such a great price! I will definitely purchase more! I'll also go back to the Wet n Wild display and grab more of the Craze polishes. Check them out guys!

Before I go, I want to thank Romika for featuring me on her blog!! Thanks so much, you're a sweetheart! If you haven't seen her blog, go check it out! She's great!

Kayla

P.S. 9 followers! Shut the front door! haha Amazing! Thanks guys!

Cute-icles!

Hey!!

So I normally have terrible cuticles. I moisturize daily but they still seem to be so dry and terrible to look at. I was reading a site the other week about getting nail polish off your cuticles and the skin around your nails. It said to paint your nails the night before and then in the shower (or after), take some Extra Virgin Olive Oil and an old toothbrush and scrub at the skin. Voila! The skin should be nail polish free!

Well, I tested this out today and let me say this: Free of nail polish? Ha! Nope! Very healthy looking/feeling cuticles? Hell Yeah!!! My cuticles have never looked so good! Ladies, if your cuticles are in need of some TLC, try this quick fix! I honestly scrubbed for 30 seconds on each hand and then washed with soap and water. I finished off by moisturizing as well. Just for added measure. But even before that they were fabulous!

Hope this helps someone! Oh, and the nail polish post will be up tomorrow!!!

Kayla

4 is my lucky number....

Hello!!!

Just a quick post to say OMG I've doubled my followers!!! haha I now have four! Exciting! Thanks for following, ladies! Also, I have a post coming up with four new polishes!!! Yes, I splurged. But I didn't spend more than $7 dollars in total! Gotta love Walgreens! I'll have that up later this week. Or if I find time tonight, later tonight! I've got a busy night: I'm dyeing my hair and I have a meeting to go to. I will try and squeeze some swatches in for my four faithful followers! Alliteration! yay! haha

Kayla

Green with Envy No More!

   Ever since I first saw a swatch for a mint green polish I was in love. I needed that color. However, every time I went to any website to search for one they were always out of stock. I have yet to purchase one.  I still ooh and ahh at every beautiful mint green swatch, but I have satisfied my lemming.

   Remember back if you can, or manually look back, to my post about frankens. I had made a nice soft green polish and quickly swatched it with the other frankens. It was then stashed away and forgotten for a few weeks. Last night I decided to use it, and I'm so glad I did. While it is not a true mint green, it's close enough for me to be extremely happy with it. I would call it a light jade green.

 

 No flash, poor lighting

  

No Flash, better lighting

 

Flash, better lighting

Natural Light

My poor nails had to be cut down really far because of how weak they were. It's weird being able to see the tops of my fingers above my nails. It was for the best and hopefully they will grow healthier and I'll be happier!

I'm a winner!!

Yay!!! I won a contest! Brooke over at Babbling Brooke drew my name for the second place prize! I'm so excited!! Thanks so much, Brooke!!! I never have good luck with contests. For instance, senior year of high school at the after grad party they did drawings for prizes, and some of it was really cool, but what did I win?

Socks and a scented candle.

And not even a great smelling scented candle. It gave me an instant migraine, so I gave it to a friend. I still have the socks though. Mostly because they have sheep on them. Tres chic! They're really warm too! I do love them, it just took me awhile to warm up to the idea of winning socks, especially since other people were winning money and other really cool stuff that I can't remember because now I have really cool socks! :)

You wanna see my socks? Do ya? OK!

 

  

Oh yeah, those are some sexy socks.  haha wow.

Earlier this week I did a really neat Spring manicure, and took some pictures of it...but they were all blurry!!! Argh! Very frustrating! I didn't notice until I was gonna post them and didn't have the mani anymore. I'm gonna post a pic anyways, its slightly blurry but I think you can see the concept.

Thumb: Sun    Index: Cloud     Middle: Flock of birds    Ring: Kite     Pinky: Rainbow

My other hand had grass, a leaf, a chicken, a bear, and a flower. It wasn't as good. If you want to know any of the polishes let me know. I don't remember them all right now.

Kayla

Help!

This is just a quick post to get out my frustration and to ask a few questions.

I've had some problems with my nail polish being easily peeled off of my nails. I've tried changing base coat and top coat but nothing seems to be helping. It wouldn't be so frustrating if it wasn't damaging my nails in the process. They're very weak as is (from acrylics I had last fall) and I don't want to damage them more.

Right now I'm using Orly ridgefiller as a base coat and Seche Vite as a top coat.

Does anyone know if either of these cause peeling (and when I say peeling I mean I can pail off the nail polish in one complete piece)?
Does the thickness of the coats applied make a difference? I know that I apply my top coat generously, but the base coat is thinner layers.

Please, if you have any insight, leave a comment! I'm desperate! Or leave me recommendations for better base/top coats! Thanks!

You've Got Nail's Giveaway!

Jacie over at You've Got Nail is having a great February giveaway! You need to head over here and check out the adorable bottles of Korean nail polish she's giving away! Oh, she's also giving away Illamasqua's Obsess! Go check it out! You don't want to miss out on this great giveaway!

You can't always get what you want...

What I wanted: A beautiful soft pink nail with a Ruby Pumps french tip.

What I got: A mess.

I originally didn't want to do a Valentine's Day NOTD, mostly because I think Valentine's Day is overrated and corny.  I was going to do an "Anti-Valentine's Day" nail but I never really came up with a design I liked.

Then everyone started posting these beautiful soft pink nails. I went back to the days when I constantly wore OPI Mod About You on my nails. I yearned for the that beautiful soft pink to be on my nails. And tonight I decided that I was going to go with the flow, be a sheeple, etc. and do a Valentine's Day nail. I had purchased ChG Lavender Lingo thinking it was a soft purple (at least the swatch looked that way on TransDesign) but it ended up being a soft pink. I hadn't tried it before tonight and thought, "What the heck, let's do it!" 

It was quite lovely on its own. Then I added Ruby Pumps to the tips. That, too, looked fantastic. I was loving it.

And then I smudged almost every other finger. I don't know how I did it. Just talented, I guess.  I touched them up and decided to put heart rhinestones on two fingers. That went fine.

I should have stopped there. I grabbed my French White creme by Wet N' Wild and used my dotting tool to add a white heart to two more fingers. DISASTER. The hearts themselves turned out great, but I somehow managed to smudge my nails some more. Fixed that, waited, and added my Seche Vite. Now, it had been a good 30-45 minutes after applying the Ruby Pumps, but that didn't stop it from streaking across my nails.

With a frustrated sigh I got rid of the evidence. Well most of it, I managed to get Ruby Pumps under my nails and need to clean it up. Ugh, I'm back to being anti-Valentine's Day. Boo hoo, right? :)

Anyone else have any nail painting horror stories? I would love to hear them!

New Banner & New CVS Haul

Hey! It has been a long week. Lots of fun quizzes and tests! Why do professors seem to put all of their tests in the same week? Cruel.

I designed a custom banner for the blog. It was great practice for using Photoshop. What do you think? Let me know if I should change something or not. Any kind of feedback would be appreciated. I really like it though; its not too fancy, but it doesn't need to be.

Now, I know that I said a couple posts ago that I wasn't going to buy anything online until May, and I haven't, but I've decided to add on to it.  I feel like I need to add some restrictions to my CVS/Sally's/etc. hauls. I am going to restrict myself to no more than 2 items per purchase and no more than one purchase every 2-3 weeks. I will, however, allow more items if they are on an extremely good sale, but I will not go overboard!

Why did I decide this? Well, I went to CVS yesterday after class and discovered that the CVS on the other side of town has a better variety of product. They had the new Milani holos, actually they had a lot of Milani, about 3 times as much as the other CVS in town. The selection of Orly was more extensive as well. I didn't know what to do! I found a new CVS to visit from now on. And this leads into my haul....

As I said, the Milani section was huge compared to the other CVS, and once I saw it, I couldn't take my eyes off it.  I think I stood in front of the display for a good 10 minutes trying to figure out where to start. I finally decided on three of the Milani neons, a holo, and two art pens. I also grabbed a Wet N' Wild polish. 

And for you, dear reader: Swatches!!!

Before I start, just a warning: I didn't clean up my nails before taking pictures! Do not be afraid!

I'll start with the Wet N' Wild polish in French White. I needed a white creme, so I grabbed it. Plus it was only a dollar! Unfortunately, it was streaky and took four coats. I wasn't too impressed with it, but it didn't look too bad after four coats. I just wish it hadn't taken that many coats to look decent.

 

Flash, under a lamp

Without flash, indirect sunlight

Totally 80s is a Milani neon. The bottle makes it look like a yellow, but on the nails it has a green tint to it. It also took four coats to become opaque. The first three coats looked like I had colored my nails with a highlighter. Thankfully, it wasn't too streaky. I was happier with this color than with the white. The second picture shows the green tint in the polish.

 

Without flash, indirect sunlight

Flash

Another Milani neon, Pink Hottie. Can you guess how many coats it took? If you guessed four, than go get yourself a cookie! This one wasn't streaky, just very sheer. It was slightly more opaque than Totally 80s, meaning I didn't feel like I did my nails with a highlighter. I really like this pink! Note: at this point I lost the sunlight so all pictures taken under a lamp. 

With flash. 

Only picture I could get true to color, the others came out peach.

The last Milani neon is Fresh Teal. This is my favorite of the three neons, mostly because it only took two coats to become opaque. I did three coats just to be safe. I had a terrible time trying to get a picture true to color. I basically had to stand on the toilet and hold my hand directly under a lightbulb to get it. Most of the pics turned out more of a dusty teal, like the first one below.

Flash

No flash? Can't remember.

Next up is the Milani holo, Hi-Tech.  Its a lovely green with tons of holographic glitter goodness in it. It kind of looks gold in some light as well. Surprisingly, my camera captured the beauty of this polish perfectly. Oh yeah, this is three coats but it was good to go in two! Just look at that holo!

Flash.

I decided I wanted to see it as a matte, so I slapped some Matte Magic on my ring finger. Here's a blurry pic to show you the difference.

Definitely looks more gold when its matte.

For the nail art pens, I just quickly swatched them on the cap of a jar to give you an idea of what they look like.

That's Green Sketch and Orange Graph

I was extremely impressed with the holo! Gorgeous! And the neon colors were great, just a little too sheer for my liking. I have an idea for a mani coming up that involves the art pens so I'll let you know how they are when I do that. 

Kayla

Chuck me!

Monday nights are something I really look forward to. Why? Because one of the best T.V. shows ever is on!

Chuck!

It is definitely the geek's dream show. Geeky guy accidentally becomes a secret agent and gets the hot girl...all while maintaining his geeky charm!

Its a great action/comedy that anyone can get into. Unfortunately, if you've missed it up 'til now you have a lot of catching up to do. Season 3 started a few weeks ago, but just barely. The fans had to rally together to bring it back and it hasn't disappointed us yet.

For any of you Sci-Fi geeks, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find Adam Baldwin(Firefly) being his badass self playing Agent John Casey.  He brings the brawn and the comedy. He's so dreamy. (drool) He's my favorite. If he asked, I would, without hesitation, run away with him in his Crown Vic. Just saying.

But that's not where the drooling stops.  Zachary Levi plays Chuck. And I don't know about you but I can never resist a hottie geek. His smile is melt-worthy. And his comedic timing is amazing. From his facial expressions to...well anything he does, its perfect. And in season 3, he gets to kick ass. Though they better have him use nunchuks soon. Swinging them around does not count!

There's plenty more eye candy...for guys too. Yvonne Strahovski plays Sarah, agent and Chuck's main love interest. You'll want them to get together so bad it'll hurt.

Classic! Love this pic!

Go here or here to find out more about Chuck. Tune in tonight at 8pm Eastern / 7pm central on NBC! I, sadly, have to miss it. But you can bet I'm recording it and watching it when I get home from work!

Maybe if you're good and watch Chuck, I'll do a Buy More themed mani for next monday. :)

Kayla

I'm a believer!

In my last post, I mentioned that I was unsure of Ruby Pumps because I'm not a "red nails kind of girl."

I was wrong.

In deciding what to paint my nails tonight, I chose Ruby Pumps because it was the least likely to be loved. As the first stroke of the brush hit my thumb nail I changed my tune. I thought it would be a clear polish full of red glitter. Nothing to drool over. I didn't understand the hype.

I understand now. Its more than a clear gloss overflowing with red glitter. In just two coats my nails were as beautiful as Dorothy's famous slippers.

I immediately had to blog.  My nails have yet to see my Seche Vite top coat.  In hindsight, I see I should have waited til my nails were completely dry but they've faired well.

I will never ever underestimate red polish again.


Kayla

Parents Just Don't Understand

I told you yesterday that I received two packages in the mail. Knowing that one of my parents had to have brought them inside I quickly brought them to my room to be opened. No need for them to get a peek at what was inside, right?


After squealing with delight over my newly acquired goodies, I ventured back downstairs. My mom didn't miss a beat. "What did you get in the mail today?!?!?" she asked me, with a seemingly excited expression. Oh but I knew better. I hesitated to answer. "Makeup?" she prodded.

Here we go...

I quickly replied that I got various things like eyeliner, mascara, and eyeshadow...

"Eyeshadow?!!?!!!" she practically yelled at me, "Don't you have enough eyeshadow?"

How do I reply? Is there anyway out of this trap? Let's try the sale approach:

"Mom, everything was only a dollar. They practically gave it to me."

"But how is it that there are any more eyeshadows for you to own. Don't you think you're wasting money?"

Crap. That didn't work. Quick, think of something else. Uh. ummm. Eh. Oh!

"Mom, it makes me happy." (Note: this is said in a completely pathetic, "please get off my back" sort of way.)

Laughter. Yes! I think its working! Please, let it be working....

"Oh alright! You're crazy, but if it makes you happy!"

Crazy? Where did that come from? Meh, who cares! Argument over!

We won't call that a victory, more like a narrow escape. But I am going to put this in writing: I will not buy anything online for the next two months.

What will I do without my online shopping? Save money! Yay!? Its bittersweet. But must be done. Wish me luck.

And now, I proudly present my last online haul until May. (That seems like so long...)
Let's Start with the Victoria Nail Supply haul:

 

L-R: ChG Ruby Pumps, OPI Absolutely Alice, ChG Lubu Heels, OPI Mad As A Hatter, and ChG Atlantis.

With that order I went glitter crazy. For years I have been anti-glitter. Its a pain. Clean up is time consuming and you can't ever seem to get it off your nails without putting in a ton of effort. Unfortunately, looking at everyone else and their blog pictures I couldn't help but fall in love. I especially love when Matte Magic is layered over the glitters! To die for! Just seeing them in the bottle: Love at first sight. I immediately put Absolutely Alice on my nails. Gorgeous! The only one I'm iffy about is Ruby Pumps, I know its pretty but I'm not really a red nails kind of girl. I am, however, a HUGE Wizard of Oz fan and will undoubtedly end up with the whole collection eventually. 

I didn't swatch them because:

1) What polish blogger hasn't?

2) They will eventually be featured in a NOTD.

Ok, now on to my picture heavy haul from NYX:

P.s. These came out fabulously true to color!

The whole shebang! Tons of eyeshadow(Sorry Mom!), eyeliner and mascara.

 

First up is White Pearl eyeshadow. This is going to be fabulous for highlighting in the corner of my eye and on my brow bone. 

This is Wild Flower, and it is the perfect peachy-pink I've been looking for. When I swatched this baby I just about died from happiness! 

 

Sweet Lagoon. This isn't as green as I thought it would be when I ordered it. I'm torn on whether I can make it work or not. I'll try it tonight and let you know. 

 

Extreme Apricot. Extreme is right. Extremely not apricot. 

Very much more red then I thought from the NYX swatch. I may not use this very often.  It scares me slightly.

 

 Las Vegas. I'm not sure what possessed me to get loose glitter. Its lovely though.

Beanie. Chrome eyeshadow. I didn't realize it was a loose powder shadow. 

Although, going back to the site, its painfully obvious. Not like they hide the fact.  

Way to read the site, Kayla! Go me! 

The site makes it look much more charcoal, so its a disappointment that its very much a brown.

More glitter. In the form of Jade glitter eyeliner. Super gorgeous!

Definitely a night on the town liner!

Sky Teal mascara. I don't know why I purchased a colored mascara. 

I think it was to try it out. But I can't see myself falling in love with it. 

Pretty color, though.

And now an arm full of swatches:

That's my haul! Hope you enjoyed! Let me know if you want to see anything in a LOTD or something!

Kayla

*EDIT*
I realize that I forgot to mention Hot Red. Its a liner. I couldn't get a good picture of the pencil on its own so I just swatched it and called it good. That's why there's one more swatch than products. And sorry the picture is so small...still testing out PhotoShop. :)

Swatches, NOTD, and goodies in the mail!!

Hey! Today was a loooooong day. Things didn't go as planned but my day brightened when I got home. I had to packages waiting for me. I was so excited, mostly because it had been awhile since I ordered one of them and had no idea what was in it! It was my order from NYX when they had their dollar sale. My other order came from Victoria Nail Supply. I think I'll do a separate post of what was inside those packages for tomorrow. Suspense!

I did manage some swatches from the impromptu CVS haul. It took me forever to get a picture and its still not the best quality. Apologies in advance! I swear I'll get a better camera someday....

From L-R we have Milani Diamond Dazzle, Sally Hansen Plum's the Word, Black Platinum, and Sephora by OPI Call Your Mother.

I added Call Your Mother because I thought that it would be similar to Plum's the Word. Its actually quite a bit lighter. Which I was thankful for, I'd rather have them be unique! Anyways, that picture gives a good idea of Diamond Dazzle's glitter but isn't true to color for the rest. Here is a blurry picture that gives true color:

Terrible quality, true to color. I hate my camera. 

I really love these polishes. Plum's the Word is just a darker Call Your Mother but there is something about those dusty purples that I love. Black Platinum is gorgeous. I mainly got it so I could see what it looks like matte...LOVE IT! Wish I had a picture...*mumbles about worthless camera*.

I did get some pictures of my LOTD featuring Black Platinum. This was actually yesterday's LOTD but whatever.

I added a coat of Diamond Dazzle on my ring finger and a heart shaped rhinestone on my thumb. I think this is a nice Valentine's Day manicure. Why? Because its not the average pink mani you get for the holiday. Its got an edge, yet still has a red heart. My kind of Valentine's Day mani!

For tomorrow:  Hauls!!!! And a LOTD.

Kayla

Retail Therapy Haul

Hi!
So, today I was feeling a little down. Woe is me. I decided to stop in at CVS to see if there was anything to brighten my day.

Of course there was! Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure polishes were buy 1 get 1 50% off! So I got two!

I decided to take a long, hard look around because I'd never really looked at CVS for makeup or anything.  I found some Milani polishes. I'd seen them on some blogs but had never tried one. So I got one.

I also grabbed Healthy Hoof Intensive Protein Treatment for my cuticles because they are in tough shape. I haven't tried it before so I'll let you know if I like it. I've put some on already and they do look moisturized...

I also grabbed some Fing'rs Bling rhinestones. I've never used rhinestones in all my nail polishing years so I thought, "Why not?!?!" and grabbed a variety pack.

Here's a picture of my "Make Kayla Happy Haul":

Nail Polishes L-R: Sally Hansen Plum's The Word, Milani Diamond Dazzle, and Sally Hansen Black Platinum.

And i just spilled my rhinestones. Today is a winner! 

Anyways, the only one I've tried so far is the Milani Diamond Dazzle. I just did a quick coat over my OPI Done Out In Deco that I have yet to take off. Its a lazy week guys! I am loving the glitter over the lavender. Very pretty:

 

I tried to get the best lighting but my room sucks for lighting and I figure I can get you some better ones when I give the polish a proper test run. Plus I have an audience today, and they are like annoying little baby ducks following me everywhere. But I can't get mad at these adorable faces:

 

Say Hello to Sawyer and Eko!

Sawyer is a Weimaraner and Eko is a Great Dane. Eko has been watching me this whole time and once Sawyer heard me taking pictures of Eko he had to get some modeling in too. But I guess blogging gets boring because Sawyer left quickly and Eko is now asleep. Aww.

He's adorable but he takes up the whole bed! I'm glad he doesn't sleep with me. He's my brother's dog and we're puppy sitting while he and his wife are on their honeymoon. :)  We have Sawyer and Charlie. .Charlie doesn't come upstairs so he wasn't in the picture but I can't leave him out!

He's so precious! He's a Weimaraner-German Short-hair Pointer cross.

I plan on getting some swatches of these new polishes sometime in the next 2 days so keep an eye out!

Kayla