Giveaway/Challenge winner...Nicole Gets Nailed

And the winner is...................................

 

Nicole gets Nailed

This was such a tough competition.  I ended up getting 10 entries via blog posts and emails.  I'm so glad I was not the judge on this because I could not have picked.  I've posted three other entrants photo's below.  I could not go without posting them.  If you aren't already following these fine ladies.....THEN DO IT! 

This is Nicole's entry.  I think what impressed the judges is the detail.  Most people looking at nail art pictures don't realize how tiny the designs are until they look at the size of there own nails. Pretty tiny canvas! I think I agreed with my husband to the 'food' theme because I knew I would get little pictures :) I cannot free hand at all. At least this gave me the opportunity to showcase some on my blog.

 

 

I love all of these so so much.  I wish everyone could of won :(  Next time I think I will do the draw because this is just so darn difficult.  I'm crossing my fingers that these fine ladies will do a guest post for me sometime.

 

 

So I love tiny cute stuff and this fits perfectly into that category.  I love everything about it. Who wouldn't like happy vegetables....and the chef?.....A-MAZ-ING.

 

Show your support for

Dreamy MM Nails

 

 

 

 

What I loved with this one was the shading and technique in the blueberries. Very artistic.  She is just amazing.

A must follow

 

Addicted to OPI-yum

 

 

This one is crazy wicked.  Look how perfect those arches are!!!!

You must go check out all her designs. Very talented lady

 

Nailed it NZ

 

 

KKCenterHK Stamping Plate Review!

Hello Ladies! Happy Sunday! Today I have a happy little stamping mani to share with you!

I've seen products from KKCenterHK before, but I had no idea that they have Nail Art supplies as well. And let me tell you, they have a veritable ton of products. Obviously I had a hard time picking something to share with you all.  I did finally manage to make up my mind, and the first product I want to share with you is, of course, a stamping plate!

First of all, these images are soooo cute! I am just in love with these little guys! I'll be honest and admit that I have no idea what this symbol means, but I love these images anyway.

The image plates come packaged in individual resealable bags, and have a clear protective film over them. The film is on there really well, so there is no way they are going to lift and leave the plates open to scratches during shipping. At first glance, I noticed the images were nicely etched and clear. The sides of the plate are a bit sharp, so you do have to be careful handling them, but I don't consider that a drawback.

Image plate SPPMB66

The above image is the plate in it's packaging. Nice and cozy! Please excuse the smears, this is post use.

And, here is what the stamps look like on the nail (forgive the index finger. I got a little happy with the topcoat):

My pics came out a little wonky since I had some oil on the lens that I didn't notice until way after the fact, but I think you get the point here. These images stamp VERY WELL!! I was very impressed! I used Sally Hansen Cherry Red as my base, and stamped with Konad Black. I am overwhelmed by the cuteness of this mani. I'm really digging it!

The images are deeply etched, but not so deep that you end up having to scrape multiple times or with a puddle of polish at the edges. They transfer easily and clearly (I did not have to try to pick up an image more than once, which is highly impressive), and are just as clear on the nail. The only smearing I experienced was my own fault - I had a cat hair stuck to my index fingernail and went a little hard with the top coat to try and slide it off- otherwise zero smearing. I'm not kidding folks, a perfect transfer every time. I am so impressed with these plates, that I plan on ordering more from them.

This particular image plate is product number SPPMB66, and you can find it either by clicking on the photo of the plate above, or here : N.Nail Plate SPPMB66. This particular plate retails for $5.05, and KKCenterHK ships worldwide. You can also receive 10% off by using code KimbersKorner at checkout.

I'll have some more really cool products to show you in the next week, so stick around!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing (and stamping!)!
-Kimber

**Products show were provided by KKCenterHK for review purposes. Please see Legal/Disclaimer page more information.**

This or that. Makeup tag!

Hello makeup-lovers and fellow spooks! :) 

I found this really fun makeup tag at vanityandvodka.com and decided to participate. Let's just jump right ahead to the questions.

1. Blush or bronzer? Since I love being pale and emphasize my pale-ness I never, ever use bronzer so I'll definitely say blush for this one. I love using a pinkish blush to get that porcelain doll effect on my face. It's particularly nice in the winter.

2. Lipgloss or lipstick? Without doubt lipstick! I don't know what I would do without my black lipstick. :O

Madam Noire <3 Black lipstick

3. Chapstick or lip butter? Chapstick. I prefer moisturizing lipsticks though. :)

4. Matte or Sparkle Eye shadow? Both! They are both extremely pretty and effectful. I think I tend to use matte ones most though, especially matte black. But sparkly eyeshadows are great to put in the inner corner of the eyes for a brightening effect.

5. Eyeliner or mascara? Eyeliner. I don't think I've ever done a look without eyeliner, but it has happened (on rare occasions... :P) that I have forgotten to put on mascara.

6. Gel, Liquid, Cream or Pencil eyeliner? Gel liner is my current favorite. It's a universal product that can be used for so many different tasks. You can put it on the waterline and you can make tiny doodles and details with it as well. :)

Makeup Geek gel liner in Immortal

7. Foundation or concealer? Foundation. I have visible pores and sometimes red areas on my skin which are covered with a thin coat of foundation. I only use concealer on my under eye area sometimes. Or as a primer when I don't have UDPP at hand. :)

8. Liquid or powder foundation? I always use liquid foundation because it is so easy to work with and gives a "glow" to the skin even though it has a matte finish.

I'm waiting for this baby to arrive in the mail. Guess who's going to spy on the postman every day this week... :P 

9. Neutral or statement eyes? STATEMENT! You would never have guessed that, would you? ^_^

My kind of makeup! :D 

10. Pressed or loose eyeshadows? I like pressed eyeshadows better, because they are easier to handle. Loose eyeshadows tend to get everywhere and cause a lot of mess.

11. Waterproof or non-waterproof? Waterproof is definitely the best, especially when you live in a town where it rains almost every day. The only thing I don't like with waterproof makeup is that it's harder to take off, at least with my makeup remover. XD

12. Brushes, sponges or fingers? Brushes! For foundation I use a flat foundation brush to apply the foundation evenly and then a duo-fiber brush to blend it and make sure there are no harsh lines at all.

Sigma F50 Duo Fiber brush. 

13. Powder, cream or liquid highlighter? I usually don't use highlighter on my face but if I would I would use a liquid highlighter. On the eyes I use eyeshadows to highlight so that would be powder then. :)


So that's my answers! Please go ahead and answer these questions yourself! It's fun! :)

Update

Ladies, I want to apologize for the lack of comments, twitter responses etc yesterday and forthcoming for a bit. We were hit with some pretty horrible news regarding a loved one and Hubs and I are still reeling. I'll still be posting, since doing my nails is what calms and centers me, and I'm still reading, but I may not have the energy to comment alot. Just wanted you all to know that I'm not ignoring you and that I do still love all the posts and awesome manis. <3

-Kimber

Raise your paw against the fur industry!

This week a wonderful campaign started at Lush Sweden, which is a collaboration with the Animal Rights Alliance (Djurrättsalliansen). It is a campaign against the cruel and completely meaningless fur industry, which inflicts terrible suffering upon thousands of animals.

In the Lush stores you can get more information about the fur industry and how the Animal Rights Alliance will help prevent animal suffering in association with this. You can write your name on a protest list and buy this cute soap. :)

It is a great soap too! Smells heavenly and the skin feels soft afterwards. It's only 59 SEK which is definitely a small price to pay for a good cause such as this.

fall watercolor look nails-Uñas de otoño con efecto acuarela

Hola!
Hoy es un día hermoso! ha estado lloviendo desde anoche, lo único malo es que es mas difícil para mi tomar fotos de mis uñas en un clima como este, así que sali con mi paraguas jaja y le tome esta foto a las uñas que me acabo de pintar :D

Hoy use una técnica que ya antes la habia usado pero con colores mas vivos, es la tecnica de la bolsa de sandwich jeje pueden encontrar un tutorial AQUÍ, y me puse a pensar que se veria muy bonito si combinara colores otoñales y esmaltes duochromos, así que aquí esta el resultado, me gusta el efecto que deja esta técnica  por que parece como una pintura de acuarela pero mucho mas sencilla y rápida.

Los esmaltes que usé son:

1. rare & radiant-china glaze
2. beetle-hard candy
3. cloud 9- sinful colors
4. skull & glossbones-OPI (como base)

Espero que les guste :D

31 Day Challenge: Flowers

Hi All

Today's challenge is flowers. As you can see from the photos I did not freehand them.  I'm sick so this is all I could do with the energy I had. 

Back to bed.......:o(

31 Day Challenge (v.2!) Day 14: Flowers

Morning Ladies! Welcome to Day 14 of the 31 Day Challenge!

Today's theme is Flowers! I have to admit, I was very close to going with stamping (I LOVE stamping and sometimes I have to remind myself that there are other forms of nail art), but I decided to try something a bit different.

It's no secret that I love water marbling. I don't do it often since it can be time consuming, but it's one of my favorite types of nail art, and I always love the results so much that I'll wear a water marble for as long as I can get away with. I actually did this mani earlier than I normally do with challenge manis just so I could wear it for awhile.

I chose to use the standard flower water marble design for this mani, but I took my inspiration from something a little different. My favorite flower is the Orchid. Particularly Black Orchids. I think they are just the most amazing flower.  Here's a quick pic of one (Source: Orchid Care via Google Images):

Gorgeous right? I love the duochrome petals on these flowers, and really wanted to try to create something like it.

I started with a Base of Finger Paints Black Expressionism, my go to one coat black. Once that was nice and dry, I water marbled using Sally Hansen Black Tie, Orly Mysterious Curse and China Glaze Want My Bawdy (oh how I hate that name!).  I chose Black Tie for obvious reasons, and since there was no way anyone would see the design had I used the actual colors of the Orchid, I decided that Mysterious Curse and Want My Bawdy would look nice and give the design some much needed contrast. I did originally try this with Black Tie and Black, and although it looked kinda cool, there way no way to capture it on camera. It was pretty hard to see IRL and I'm sure I only was able to see the design since I knew exactly what I was looking for.

The downside to this design is that it is near impossible to truly capture it with my camera. Or any camera really. Trust me, I tried several. In the end I had to use 2 very bright lights shining directly on my nails and at very close range, which made my skin look strange and washed out in some pics, but hey...I'd rather you see the mani than stare at my skin color anyway! IRL these are much darker and mysterious and more closely resembles the petals of a black orchid. I wish I could show you guys but on camera it just looks like black with an itty bitty bit of random color. Maybe this wasn't my best idea.....

Enough of my babbling explanations of why this isn't as bright IRL and my photography woes! I give you.....Black Orchid Inspired Flower Water Marbled Nails!

IRL in Natural Light these are much more subtle, but for photo purposes I chose to light these babies up like crazy so you can see the design. Most of the time they look like a flower shaped oil slick on my nails, and I'm really enjoying the effect! I will say the Mysterious Curse was rough to marble with. It made a great ring, but dried very fast so I had to make sure I dropped my polish at lightening speed and created the design even faster. I had originally intended to do a different shaped petal design, but the polish wouldn't cooperate for that due to the quick dry time in the water, so I decided this worked too. I know it's hard to see, but trust me, it's there!

What do you think of dark water marbles like this? I love it, but I think I'll end up sticking with marbles that are easier to see!

Don't forget to check out all the Varnished Vixens' flower nails!

 Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles  

Be sure to check back Monday for Delicate Print. And of course I'll be spamming you guys with polish posts in between!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing! 

-Kimber

Aries

After having done the Pisces look for a Makeup Bee competition I got a request to do another Zodiac sign as well; Aries.
Since I love the theme I might do more looks in this series. If you want me to do a look inspired by your sign please just let me know. :)

Positive traits

*Full of energy, honest and outspoken

*Brave and loves challenges

*Shows compassion without difficulties

*Passionate and sexy

*Effective and gets things done right away

*You can't be bored in their presence! 

Negative traits

*Often very dominant

*Unruly and selfish

*Impatient and gets bored easily

*Tends to act immature when they don't get what they want

*Hot-headed and rash

Good matches: Leo, Capricorn, Sagittarius and Pisces

Bad matches: Scorpio, Taurus, Virgo and Cancer

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Face

*Ultra fluid foundation Alabaster (Kryolan)

*Studio Finish Concealer (M.A.C.)*

*White pressed powder (Stargazer)

Eyebrows

*Corrupt (Makeup Geek)

Eyes

*Love+ (Sugarpill) 

*Flamepoint (Sugarpill) 

*Milk Jumbo pencil (NYX)

*White lies (Makeup Geek)

*Corrupt (Makeup Geek)

*Eye kohl Smolder (M.A.C.)*

*Fluidline Blacktrack (M.A.C.)*

*Ardell #115 false lashes (top), #108 (bottom)

Lips

*Black eyeliner pencil

*Russian red (M.A.C.)*

*IMPORTANT: Since M.A.C. has decided to start testing their products on animals I can no longer recommend you to buy these products! The reason why I'm still using them is because I bought them before it came to my knowledge that M.A.C. would become a non-cruelty free brand. I won't however buy any new products by them since animals are more important to me than looking good. 

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That was my Aries goth/deathrock look. :) I hope you enjoyed this post! Thank you so much for reading and big hugs to all of you! 

Last dance

This is an extremely simple makeup look that I wore the other day. I used one single color on the lid and in the crease, and the eyeshadow I used for this is Last dance by Makeup Geek, which is a medium purply brown. I guess it kind of reminds of Sketch by M.A.C. in many ways.

The swatch to the left is on bare skin and the one to the right is on top of NYX Jumbo pencil in Milk.

 To achieve this makeup look just apply a black base on your lid and blend it upwards into the crease with a blending brush. On top of that apply last dance and blend it out. As a highlight color I used a matte withe on the brow bone and a shimmery white in the inner corner.

Since I've only used one eyeshadow for this look I won't do a list of products this time. :) 

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This weekend I will do the makeup for another burlesque fashion show with Tokill4, which will be awesome! :D

Salon Express.....here is where we part ways...

You heard it! I don't know why I keep trying with these plates. I think I like the simple single designs. That way I have freedom to place them anywhere on my nails.  Unfortunately they are crap.....  I'm having a hard time throwing them out though. I have both Konad and Bundle Monster so I don't know why I hold on to them.

I should be getting my new set of Bundle Monster plates on Monday from Nail Polish Canada.  I'm being very impatient about it.  I just love the look of stamps. Especially when its a pattern that covers the entire nail. 

Any who the full nail is in Revlon's 'Vixen'.  This is what made this picture worth posting. It's a gorgeous deep burgundy wine colour.  Perfect for fall!

Peace out!

Bex

xo

Hard Candy- Beetle (duochrome)

Hola!!!
otro día mas de otoño, ahh me encanta como el clima ya no es tan caluroso aunque a veces todavía el sol esta fuerte, y hoy en honor a esta temporada nueva les traigo un esmalte que va muy bien coordinada a ella, el esmalte Beetle es muy conocido en la blogosfera por que es muy similar al famosisimo Space cadet de la colección cosmic fx de orly la ÚNICA diferencia es que todavía puedes encontrar beetle en walmart y space cadet era de edición limitada :(. Pero son completamente  idénticos y hard candy es un poco mas barato.

En cuanto al color bueno!! es HERMOSO!!!!! lo adoro es de mis esmaltes favoritos en mi colección, lo compre hace un año y jamas lo había usado, no se por que así me pasa algunas veces compro esmaltes y los guardo hasta que siento que quiero usarlo jaja, soy rara lo se :p

Beetle es un esmalte duochromo de color cobrizo que al moverlo cambia a dorado con un poco de verde. Para esta foto utilicé dos capas sin top coat.

Sally Hansen Lustre Shine: Plume!

Hello again Ladies! Three posts in one day! I think that's a record! But hey, I just had to share this last Lustre shine with you guys!

I saved Plume for last since it looked like just another Peridot dupe, but I have to tell you....I am surprisingly pleased! Plume is much more colorful that any of my Peridot dupes, and the color shift is much more pronounced. That crazy gorgeous shift is evident in normal lighting, and talk about saturated! This one is a true beauty, and I am so glad that I decided not to pass on it!

Most of my Peridot dupes have that slight gold to green shift. Plume stands out with a gold, to bright yellow gold, to glowing green shift. There's even a little bronze in there at certain angles. Until now I have been on the fence about these colors, but Plume has won my heart. Way to go Sally Hansen!

This 3 coats of Plume by herself:

Tell me this girl isn't GORGEOUS!! Honestly, this is the first Peridot-like polish that I have not stamped over. Plume is definitely a winner!

Formula:
Smooth and Silky, very little thickening on the bottleneck. This was a dream.

Application:
Plume applies smoothly and glides onto the nail like buttah! It does seem rather thin at first, but it builds up nicely. It's opaque at 2 coats, but I used 3 since I had some bubbling. That was due to my son shaking the ever loving heck out of the bottle though, and not the polish itself. The only issue with this gal is the usual drag that every color of this family seems to have, so let this dry between coats and it's a non issue.

Overall I am just pleased as punch with Plume. I never thought I would really love any of the Peridot-like polishes, but I was so very wrong. If you're looking for a fabulous, less expensive alternative to Peridot, I highly recommend you grab Plume while you can.

And that concludes my Lustre Shine series (until the mystery 2 are released anyway!). I hope I represented them well. Which ones are you dying for?

Thanks for stopping by, and as always, Happy Polishing!
-Kimber