Sunday, September 30, 2012

Butter London: Knackered


I hope everyone had a good weekend! I’m not sure I’m ready to start the week yet. I was pretty excited to learn the other day that we just opened an Ulta in my town. I have to get a lot of my polish off the internet unless I find time to make a specific trip. The closest Sephora that carries polish is an hour away… in fact, pretty much everything is an hour away. It’s a bit of a bummer since I rarely want to pay shipping when SOME DAY I’ll make it out to get the polish in person!

Anyway, I hurried down to Ulta ASAP to check it out! (And tried not to look crazy because I was soooo excited!) I picked up Orly Space Cadet, a few of the new Sally Hansen  polishes that have been floating around, and Butter London: Knackered.

I was SOOOOO thrilled to get my hands on a bottle of Knackered. I’d seen pictures floating around, and every time I would think meh. It’s not THAT great. (And thus put off buying it…) After getting a bottle, let me just tell you, it IS that great. It really is. Knackered is this gorgeous duo-chrome polish that is sprinkled with holographic glitter bits. It’s really sheer on its own, although I think you could build it up if you wanted to. I don’t have the patience for that so I layered it over Julep Viola—a deep, black-purple.

My pictures are a little off, and I don't have the editing skills to fix them, but this polish has an unmistakable purple-pink shine. My camera wants to make it grey. 

This is going to be really picture heavy because none of these images could do the polish justice. 


Tuesday, September 25, 2012

My first Glitter Gal polish!

Hello all! I hope you all had a good weekend! Today I have for you my first Glitter Gal polish! It's one of their shade shifter polishes. These come in two options: brilliant and soft. I picked Wild Violets Brilliant. It's got a great shift from a classic violet purple to a deeper blue-toned purple depending on how the light hits. Maybe not the strongest shift in the world f polish but it's absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to pick up a few more color options from Glitter Gal!

click to enlarge

click to enlarge
I don't remember how many coats this was. Three, I think? Anyway, you can pick up Glitter Gal polish from their direct site HERE or Ninja Polish HERE. They retail at $17.50 a bottle, which may seem steep to some, but these are definitely worth it... and  you get a full-size bottle! 

That's all I've got for today. I hope you all have a great day/night (wherever you are) and hello to the new followers! ^_^


****Disclaimer: the products in this post were purchased by me

Thursday, September 13, 2012

OPI: Every Month is Oktoberfest

Hello everyone! I hope your days are all going well! Today I have for you a polish from the OPI Germany Collection. I didn't get very many of these. Not many colors stood out to me so I only picked up Every Month is Oktoberfest and the odd yellow that I can't remember the name of. It's across the room so I'm not going to go grab it. >_< Haha.

Every Month is Oktoberfest (EMIO?) ha, anyway, EMIO is a deep red-purple with subtle gold and purple shimmers. It leans more red to me than purple, but the base has a definite deep purple tinge to it. I was actually hoping for a smidge more purple than what there was, but it's still a really pretty polish anyway. I thought the formula was great. It went on smoothly with two coats. I topped it with Seche Ultra-V, a UV topcoat. (The lamp was on sale.)


And please forgive me some for slight swooning. I am still on my new-camera high and these pictures are TONS better than ones I could have gotten with my old camera or, heaven forbid, my phone! *drool* haha! You can also click on them to make them bigger if you want to check out the shimmer!





I don't know what is going on with my ring finger! I think it's just the way the light is glaring off of it. There isn't anything smudged on it at all but I had a hard time getting a picture without that smudge/dirt looking thing there!  

I started using the UV topcoat to see if it lasted any longer than a regular top coat. I didn't notice much of a difference in wear time between this and regular Seche Vite. I use my nails a lot and regardless, I always have a chip or two within a day with either one. When I remember, I plan on doing a test with alternating fingers. My main reason for sticking with this is that the curing with the lamp takes a few minutes  longer, but there isn't that slight fear of bumping something and getting a dent or a scratch in your ALMOST dry mani. Maybe that's just me, but with this you are pretty much good to go when you're done curing unless you hit something REALLY hard or sharp. That seems to work better for me!

Have a good day/night everyone! 

***Disclaimer: all products in this post were purchased by me



Tuesday, September 4, 2012

NOTD: Illamasqua Prosperity and Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Super, SUPER quick post! I got a new camera! Whoopie!!!! I need to play with it to figure out how to use it so I can get some better pictures up here! I did a quick one with my mani for today. I added Max Factor Fantasy Fire to Illamasqua's Prosperity from my last post, and of course it is GORGEOUS!


Could be a better picture but I haven't had a new camera in YEARS so this is like alien technology to me. Give me a cell phone and I can have it figured out in minutes....but a camara? Nope. Haha I think I'll do some swatching this weekend as practice!

Monday, September 3, 2012

Illamasqua Prosperity

Hello all! Sorry its been so long! I made s HUGE mistake a few weeks back and decided I didn't have time to do my nails, so I had acrylics put on. Bad BAD idea. First: I know I hate acrylics. Getting junk between my fake and real nails is just nasty. Second: I didn't choose a good place. My nails got destroyed. I wasn't even worth it because I soaked them off a week layer. Lesson learned.

Anyway, I had to rehab my nails for awhile. They're still weak, and there is a ridge where my new nail is growing. I've finally gotten it to the point where it isn't so noticeable! (Except when I wear chromes, which sucks since I picked up the China Glaze Bohemian Collection and STILL haven't gotten a chance to wear them!)

Now, my polish today! We don't have an actual Sephora in my town. The one we have is in a JC Penney and they have almost nothing for nail Polish. Boo! I can never get myself to order from their site though because the city an hour away from me has a Sephora, and they DO carry polish... I just never have time to go up. Finally made it this weekend and picked up my first Illanasqua, which I've been lemming for for awhile! I only grabbed Prosperity from the rubber mattes because I was on a budget and wanted some Nails Inc. too!

Prosperity is of the limited edition Rubber Mattes Illamasqua put out. There are 5 or 6 other bright colors that I didn't grab since I at least just wanted the purple! This was my first dealings with this brand and if this was their not-so-good formula (based on some other blogs opinions) then I'm amazed because I thought it was great!! It went on in two easy coats and didn't bubble at all! I'm not 100% certain I'm sold on the finish, but it's interesting. Not matte but not shiny. Rubber is very accurate!

The only thing that might be a negative for some is the polish dried a lit darker than the bottle color. I was expecting a brighter purple but as you can see, its still very dark. I'm on with that but it might bother others.

Finally, forgive my picture and future pics as well. My camera is missing so these are all from my phone! And sorry if this post is covered in typos. I'm writing it from my phone as well because I don't want to dig my laptop out to transfer the images. Haha lazy, I know!

***and sorry if the pic is in a random spot? Phone app = pretty terrible stand in.