My New Year Nails-China Glaze Dorothy Who

Hola!!
solo paso para desearles un prospero año nuevo y mis mejores deseos a todos los que me leen, realmente espero que el mundo tenga un poco mas de paz este 2013.

Estas son mis uñas para el día de hoy :D es el esmalte Dorothy Who de la marca China Glaze el cual me parece perfecto para esta ocasión. Es un esmalte hermoso de base azul traslucida con micro glitter azul y plata. Respecto a la botella...mi hijo estaba jugando con mis esmaltes cuando era mas pequeño y justamente escogió tirar al piso mi esmalte nuevo de de dorothy who :s así que se quebro la botella de china glaze pero logre recuperar el contenido!!

Tip Top Nails South Africa: Blue Meets Green

Hello Lovelies! Happy New Years Eve!! I don't know about you, but I'm hoping that 2013 doesn't start off as badly as 2012 did! I swear I had the worst luck in January of this year. Here's to a better one in '13!

Also, this is the LAST DAY TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY!!!  CLICK HERE TO ENTER! Make sure you get those daily entries as well!

Today I have Blue Meets Green from Tip Top Nails South Africa to share with you. I was very excited to have the opportunity to review Tip Top Nails products for you all. If you haven't seen what they have to offer, I highly recommend checking them out!

Blue Meets Green is just what the name suggest: a lovely teal blue/green creme. This color is absolutely gorgeous! I used this for some nail art that I have coming up as well since it's a perfect color for a stamping base, as well as being beautiful on its own. There are two Collections from Tip Top Nails available: Nail Chic and Nail Addict. This polish is from Tip Top's Nail Chic Line.

As you can see, I'm back to photographing my left hand. I just got tired of struggling to get decent pictures of my right hand. My left hand is still somewhat short due to the nature of the breaks a few weeks back, but they're finally shaped and long enough to show again. :)

All photos are 2 coats of Blue Meets Green over Tip Top Nails Toughen Up Base Coat and topped with Tip Top Nails Toughen Up Top Coat (review to come!). This color does do interesting things to my skin tone, so ignore that!

I love a good teal and Blue Meets Green did not disappoint (despite the weird skin tone in photos!). My camera did want to make this a touch more blue than it is IRL, but it's very close.

Formula:
Blue Meets Green has one of the nicest creme formulas I have ever used. The consistency was absolute perfection. I experienced no thickening, or glopping. Wonderful!

Application:
Smooth and silky, this girl applied like butter! Although BMG is Opaque at one coat, I used 2 here out of habit. No dragging or balding, and as a bonus this required about 2 seconds of clean up. If you do use clean-up to straighten your lines, be careful! This color will leave a touch of blue on your cuticles if they're dry at all. Wear is impressive - I wore this for 3 days and had zero tip wear and no chipping! This polish is also incredibly shiny, even without top coat.

I can't think of a single con to this polish - I'm truly that impressed with this brand. I have 3 more colors to show you all, as well as their Toughen Up Base and Top Coat (which I'm testing out now, and am highly impressed so far!).

You can check out Tip Top Nails South Africa on their website. I couldn't find pricing or ordering information, but if you email them they are very friendly and helpful. Tip Top is renowned for its exceptionally safe products – all nail enamels are vegan, Formaldehyde, Toluene, DBP (Dibuthyl Phthalate) and Camphor FREE – and made in South Africa with the best raw materials and are not tested on animals. I definitely recommend taking a grabbing some of these beauties!

Have you seen any polish from Tip Top Nails South Africa before?

Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
-Kimber

**Polish featured was sent for review purposes. For more information see Disclosure/Legal Page**

Happy New Year 2013-Feliz Año Nuevo 2013

Hola!!
Otro año que queda atrás, y mientras vivimos las últimas horas del 2012 quiero mostrarles otro disenio de para celebrar año nuevo.
No puedo decir que este año fue el mejor para mi pero no fue tan malo, mi blog avanzó mucho y creo que mejoró en muchas cosas y me encantó compartir con el mundo el amor que tengo por el arte en las unias, también puedo decir que he mejorado muchisimo en mi técnica para pintar y en mi conocimiento por tecnicas y emaltes. Este año logré ser estilista y lo mejor de todo este año es que mi hijo esta sano y creciendo muy bien :D Así que doy gracias a Dios por todo lo que he aprendido y por las bendiciones que me dió y me da cada día.

Para este post quise hacer algo mas clásico así que pense en el color ''Dorado'' y también utilicé una imagen de pinterest como inspiración la cual les mostraré más adelante,  como base utiicé el esmalte ''Rare & Radiant'' de China Glaze. Para pintar las copas y las letras usé pintura acrilica de la marca republic nail y mizza.

Laquerlicious: Indigo Storm

Hello lovelies! Sorry for the late post - I'm a touch under the weather today so this will be short and sweet. I'm also going back to photographing my left hand! It's still way shorter than my right, but I'm tired of struggling to get even half decent pictures.

Today I have Laquerlicious Indigo Storm to share with you all. Laquerlicious is a fairly new Indie Brand masterminded by Michelle. Despite being a new brand, her Etsy shop is positively LOADED with gorgeous polish. Indigo Storm is just one of those beauties, boasting a deep purple jelly base with iridescent blue glitter, multi micro bar glitter and tiny mutli colored glitter. This baby is limited edition - once it's gone it's gone, so get it while you can (it's worth it!) !

All photos are 3 coats of Indigo Storm topped with SV  (I went back. As much as I loved the Mega Shine, it didn't work so well with my body chemistry and bubbled constantly):

I really wish that my pictures did this justice. It's so vibrant and shimmery IRL. The combination of the deep purple/blue with the glitters is just heanvenly!

Formula:
Indigo Storm's formula was just lovely. No thinner needed and no thickening during use.

Application:
Smooth as silk, save for the tiny bar glitters, which really wanted to stick out occasionally. But I wouldn't exactly call that a problem!

Indigo Storm is such a fabulous polish. This is the second of 3 Laquerlicious polishes that Michelle sent me and so far I haveno actual complaints!

Laquerlicious is available on Etsy and retail for $8.50. There is a sale going on and you can grab some of Michelle's polishes for $6.50! I highly recommend grabbing some while you can!

What you think of Indigo Storm?

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber (look below! I remembered my disclaimer this time!)

**Indigo Storm sent for review purposes. For more information see Legal/Dislaimer page**

The Heart Breaker

This is the result of my playing around with the Heart Breaker palette by Sugarpill... I really wanted to do a look with all of the eyeshadows in this palette and this is what I came up with. It is very hard to use them all and get a coherent look.

These colors will look great both on blue and brown eyes. Here it is on my natural eye color.

On brown eyes. :3 Creative eyebrows that will get so much crap from people if Sugarpill decides to post it on their Facebook page. A lot of people there goes mental whenever they see eyebrows that diverts from their opinion of "normal". Most of the time I'm very indifferent to that, they may think what they want, but sometimes I get so tired of all haters... *___*

Unfortunately the sun went down before I managed to snap a full face picture of this look. Meh! Thank god that the days are now slowly becoming longer. It will definitely be an advantage for my photographing.

Face

*Skin base foundation 02 (Illamasqua)

*Studio finish concealer (M.A.C.)*

*Loose powder (Isadora)

Eyebrows

*Corrupt (Makeup Geek)

Eyes

*Heart Breaker palette (Sugarpill)

*Tako (Sugarpill)

*Corrupt (Makeup Geek)

*Gel liner Mystic (Makeup Geek)

*Medium Pencil S.O.P.H.I.E. (Illamasqua)

*Waterproof Glossy Eyeliner (Isadora)

*False lashes #111 (Ardell)

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I hope you're all having a great time and have something fun planned for New Years Eve! :)
Thanks for reading!

New Year Nails-Winter Holiday Challenge

Hola!!
Wow hoy es el último día del reto Winter holiday :( me siento triste pero a la vez feliz de haber completado otro reto. El tema de hoy es ''New year's eve''. Pero como saben ya el 1 de enero comienza el 31 day challenge en el grupo de Crumpet's nail tarts así que a ver como me va con ese reto jeje.

Bueno pues para New Year Nails usé como base el esmalte de Avon licorice y para el glitter usé el esmalte de L.A. Colors Color Craze ''Confetti''. Para este diseño preferí hacer algo colorido por que siento que todos los diseños de NYE son solo azul, plateado y dorado aunque también tengo planeado algo con esos colores pero quise incluir un diseño colorido también :D

El reloj de mi diseño lo pinte de una imagen que vi en google que me pareció perfecto para el diseño que tenia en mente. 

Kelara Lacquers Fantasy Collection: Daydream

Hello Lovelies! Happy Friday! It's getting close to 2013 and I'm pretty excited. The New Year brings some changes to KLK, including tutorials, full collection reviews, and Flakie Fridays with Susan from The Subtle Shimmer!

Today I have another polish from Kelara Lacquers to share with you. This is Daydream, a simpy beautiful mix of Large Blue Hex, medium Pink Hex, and small baby blue glitters in a soft blue base. I have to admit, I was not in love with this polish at first....but once I added my Gelous to it I changed my tune. I'll explain all that after some photos!

First of all, please forgive the bubbling. My top coat did not play well with this polish at all. These bubbles were not there until I added my top coat and I swatched this twice in an attempt to get rid of them. Cool thing is that in person they look like pink glitter.:) And of course, my hands are dry and angry due to Xmas festivities, unboxing toys that are almost adult-proof, and horrible cold, windy days.

This is 3 coats of Daydream, no undies, topped with SH Mega Shine:

Like I said previously, I didn't love this one at first, but I fell in love fast. I really like that the base is not white but a soft baby blue. It's a nice twist on the ever-popular white base with glitter that we've seen so much of this year.

Formula:
Daydream is a little on the thick side, and since I am a fan of thin coats I did add a few drops of thinner. The thickness does aid in picking up those large glitters, however this polish has so much glitter that it's really not an issue. In fact, at times I felt like there was too much glitter!

Application:
Daydream applied wonderfully save for one thing: The large blue hexes really wanted to stick to their friends on the coat underneath. As soon as they touched the glitters from the previous coat, they did not want to move. This resulted in some areas where there was just too much glitter in one place on the nail. I remedied this by placing a drop of polish on the nail as usual, but instead of polishing normally, I flattened out the drop of polish to see how much glitter was there, then applied the first brush strokes where more glitter was needed. Sounds like a pain but it was really fast and worked perfectly.
My only other issue was with bubbling, but to be honest there were no bubbles at all until I added my top coat. The bubbles go all the way down to my bare nail so it's definitely the top coat and not the polish here. Even after I applied a coat of Gelous there was no bubbling. Don't let the bubbles put you off! It's not the polish!:)

Overall I really like this polish and do see myself wearing this often. I don't have any polish like this one in my stash (I've steered clear of the thousands of white based glitters just because there are so many of them and I'm leaning toward more unique polish lately), which makes me like this one all the more.

Kelara Lacquers are 3-Free and lovingly hand made by the Husband and Wife team of Kellen and Tara. You can find them at Kelara Lacquers on Etsy and full size bottles retail for $9, minis $4.50. There are entire collections available as well, so check them out!

What do you think of Daydream? Are you a white base person or do you prefer the softer, pastel base?

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

My Xmas Manicure! Polish TBH: Reindeer Vomit!!

Hello lovelies! I finally managed to get photos uploaded and edited! It's looking like I will be posting twice a day for awhile in order to catch up. Today I'll be swatching away though!

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday. Christmas is a huge deal in my Family and we spent 3 days celebrating. I only wanted one thing for Christmas this year - I wanted my kids to have a wonderful Christmas and have a day where they were spoiled and happy. My wish was granted and by the end of the day I had two incredibly happy and worn out kiddos. It was one of the best Christmas days ever and so much more than I could have hoped for. The only thing that wasn't great was the beating my hands and cuticles took! Wrapping paper, removing toys from boxes, and a dog bite (my niece's dog had a scaredy dog moment and chomped on me while I was holding him. Better me than one of the kids tho!) tore my hands up. Between all of that and the cold, dry weather and forced heat with zero humidity, my hands are angry. Time for some pampering!

Before I show you some awesome polish, don't forget to enter the giveaway! Less than a week left to enter, and there are some daily entries that you don't want to forget!

I am also finally mailing out packages today. Long lines at the post office and a cranky toddler delayed things a bit. Sorry about that folks! Rest assured your polishes are all on their way now!

Today I am (finally!) sharing my Xmas manicure with you all! I purposely saved this polish for Xmas, since it is my very fave Holiday polish from 2012, and perhaps my fave holiday polish of all time. It's from one of my top 3 Indie Brands, Polish TBH and it it's called "Reindeer Vomit". This polish is aptly named, since it literally looks like Rudolph had a few too many margaritas and upchucked all over my nails! I have a pretty twisted sense of humor so this is right up my alley!

Reindeer Vomit (hehe) is a mix of fuchsia, blue, silver, gold mutli-size and shape glitters and microglitters with some large Red Hex, Gold Hex,and Silver Stars in a sheer green jelly base. I'm sure I'm forgetting something in there - this girl is just LOADED with glitter! The sheer green base is what really makes this for me. This particular shade of green looks alot like maybe Rudolph was drinking some Midori Sours as well!

This is 3 coats of Reindeer Vomit, no undies, topped with SH Mega Shine. Be sure to click to read more....you want to check out the macros of this polish!!

I LOVE this polish! The green jelly base is a bit more vibrant IRL - my lighting just kind of goes through it since it is a sheer jelly. Although this is meant to be a Holiday Polish, you can bet that I'll be wearing this year round.

Formula:
As with all Polish TBH creations, the formula on this girl was wonderful! Usable right out of  the bottle  with no thickening during use. No glopping or gooping at all, and no clumpy glitters.

Application:
Superb! Reindeer Vomit applied smoothly for a super chunky glitter bomb. No dragging, balding, clumping at the nail tip here! The brush delivered the perfect amount of glitter for each coat, and I did not have to fish for the larger hexes or star glitters at all. The green jelly base is pretty sheer, so if you don't like VNL I would suggest 3 coats (no VNL IRL), however this looks awesome at even 1 coat.  RV would also look amazing layered.

I'm not sure if Reindeer Vomit is going to be available as part of Christian's new collection - it may have been an LE - but if you can get your hands on it I highly recommend it.  You can be I will be cherishing my bottle!

Polish TBH is available via the Polish TBH shop on Etsy. All polishes are 3-free, and full sized bottles retail for $8, minis for $4.  The Fantasy Collection is available now, and be sure to keep an eye out for the new collection!

What do you think of Reindeer Vomit? Are you loving this glitter as much as I am?

I'll be back tomorrow with a couple of posts including Laquerlicious and Tip Top Nails South Africa!

Until then....thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Santa Claus and elves-Winter Holiday Challenge

Hola!! 
Pues aquí esta el diseño que tocaba el 24 del Winter Holiday Challenge ya que ese día estuve trabajando y no pude pintarlo antes pero las uñas de hoy quedan perfectas para este día 26!

Mi mamá colecciona tazas ya que le encanta el café y tiene una en particular que siempre me ha gustado mucho, jeje  es de el día después de Naidad cuando Santa Claus ya esta descansando sentado en su chimenea. Así que me pareció muy buena idea para postearlo hoy :D

De base para el diseño utilicé el esmalte de Kleancolors Pastel blue y lo demás es pintura para ''mano alzada''.

Espero que les guste :D

Aquí están las fotos de la taza de mi mamá la cual me sirvió de inspiración para el diseño :D

The 13th Day of Christmas...

Morning Lovelies! I hate to admit this, but polish posts will not resume until tomorrow. I still have my Xmas polish to share, but in all the merry making yesterday I seem to have misplaced the SD Card that my photos are on!

I also have to admit that the day after Xmas is always a down day for me. Christmas is so special for me and my kids that going back to just another day is kind of sad.

Normalcy shall return tomorrow. Until then, I have a toddler to play with (my daughter is at her dad's today so it's just me and the little one).

Hope you all had a wonderful Xmas!

-Kimber

Sugarpill Swatch-fest

I must have been very nice this year because Santa brought me a lot of awesome gifts! :D Or at least I have the most wonderful boyfriend in the world who knows exactly what I like! Anyway, I got some stuff from Sugarpill (and also some from Illamasqua) that I, the duteous makeup-blogger I am, had to swatch for you. You probably have seen swatches of these products already, but if not, just keep reading.

I got the two palettes that I didn't have; Sweetheart and Heart Breaker. As if those awesome palettes weren't enough Mr. Noire also got me the gorgeous pigment Stella, and Sugarpill provided a sample of their golden beauty Goldilux. Happy madam Noire! :D

Let's start with the Heart Breaker palette that contains the eyeshadows Acidberry, Velocity, 2AM and Mochi. 

Acidberry
This is seriously the perfect lime-green eyeshadow! The color is a little bit more sheer than I expected (but bear in mind that these swatches are made on my arm; the eyelids are oilier which "enhances" the eyeshadow). On top of NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk it becomes more vibrant and gets this delicious sheen that reminds me of a polished Granny Smith apple. Yummy!
Vegan

Velocity
This color reminds me a lot of Makeup Geek's Neptune, but is a little bit more pigmented and maybe a little darker as well. It is a matte royal blue that I bet will look stunning on brown/black eyes!
Vegan

2AM
2AM is the perfect marriage between purple and pink. It is a matte magenta that when applied over NYX's Milk gets a gorgeous bluish sheen.

Mochi
Mochi was the reason for my falling in love with this palette. It is insanely pigmented - then I really mean insanely - and I find this beautiful minty sea-green rather unique. It is matte but in the same time there's a slight pearly sheen that enhances the color (at least I imagine it does... ;) ) and adds to this eyeshadows oceanic soul.
Vegan

Let's move on to the Sweetheart palette... It inhabits the eyeshadows Dollipop, Afterparty, Midori and Tako.

Dollipop
Pink, pink, pink! It couldn't be more pink even if it tried. I've been longing for this eyeshadow for ages and now that it's finally mine I'm not disappointed. :) Use it alone to get a hot pink statement shadow or mixed with Tako to tone it down into a more baby pink cutiepie.

Afterparty
Bright turquoise-ish blue with a semi-pearl sheen; that is, it is not entirely matte but not very shimmery either. I don't use blue eyeshadow that often but this one is so pretty I might change that habit. :) I'm looking forward to try it out in some kind of gradient-look with Velocity and Mochi.
Vegan

Midori
Very pretty emerald green. I must admit that this is the one I was least curious about when I drooled over the palettes at Sugarpill's webshop.
Vegan

Tako
Matte white. The formula is perfect and the pigmentation amazing! I mean, look at it!
Vegan

And now onto the loose eyeshadows. :)

Stella
Honestly, no picture can make this loose eyeshadow justice. It is just... WOW! It is a jet black powder inhabited by sparkles in all the colors of the rainbow. Loads of sparkles. LOVE! By the way, did I mention the sparkles? :)
Vegan

Goldilux
I can't but agree with Sugarpill's own description of this shadow; "The brightest gold you've ever seen."  I have tried a lot of gold eyeshadows but none have had the same shine as this, which is exactly what makes this eyeshadow special. I have to buy the full size of this eyeshadow some time.
Vegan

With that said, we've come to the end of this Sugarpill swatch-fest. Have you guys tried any of Sugarpill's eyeshadows? Which one is your absolute favorite? Which one is number one on your wishlist? :)

I hope that every one of you have had a great Christmas! :) Thanks a lot for reading!