Rabu, 06 November 2013

Lac Attack Waxy Lady Topcoat and OPI Eurso Euro!

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Hello Lovelies! I really wish that I had been able to post earlier, but the hubby's days off were spent working on my son's bedroom. We sorted and threw away alls sorts of old things we had stored in that room, hauled loads to the dump, primed over the former artwork on the walls and then painted the final color. I spent 3 days covered in dust and paint and I'm glad that it's almost finished.

Thankfully I can now get back into an actual swatching routine! I have some awesome Holiday polishes coming up this week, as well as that promised Polish TBH, and I am so excited to show those off. I'll also finally post the giveaway, although I'm still going back and forth on the prize sets. I suppose I'll have to finalize that tomorrow so I can get it up and running over the weekend.

Today I have an awesome top coat to share with you all, and I'm way excited about this one. I love wax effect top coats. I also love Matte Top coats, but there is something about that smooth, waxy look that really gets me. I was so happy when Lac Attack sent me their Waxy Lady Top Coat to share with you all, but I had a hard time choosing a base color. I knew I wanted something that really popped and would show off that waxy look, so I eventually settled on OPI Eurso Euro, a stunning Blurple creme.  I know that most everyone on earth has seen this polish with a shiny top coat, and had a feeling it would look amazing with Waxy Lady on top. I was right!

This is 2 coats of OPI Eurso Euro topped with Lac Attack Waxy Lady Top Coat:







Okay, if Eurso Euro wasn't a gorgeous polish before, it is truly awesome after adding Waxy Lady. I love how smooth this looks, and how the finish really looks more wax-like than just mattified. It allows the color and some of the shine to come through while creating the perfect smooth, slightly matte yet still moist looking finish that I just adore.  One of the things that keeps me from mattifying often is that it seems to dull the color a bit too much for me, whereas a wax effect top coat keeps that color shining through.

Waxy Lady's formula is a touch thicker than your usual top coat, yet it's so easy to work with and doesn't glop up or thicken while polishing. Application was straight forward and perfect - Waxy Lady flows just as nicely as a shiny top coat, levels perfectly and dries just as fast. My nails were dry to the touch within 2-3 minutes. One of the things that truly stood out here was the wear. I'm  used to matte or wax effect manicures having some terrible wear with Creme polishes, but Waxy lady wore perfectly without any chips or tip wear for over 2 days, and that was while being highly abused during home improvement time! *Angels Sing!*

Without a doubt, Waxy Lady is my very fave wax top coat ever! I just have to have many bottles of this, and I have a feeling you will be seeing a lot more manicures topped with this baby.   I can't wait to show you a glitter polish with this top coat - it's epic! If you're a fan of mattifying your manicures,  I highly suggest you give Waxy Lady a go. I guarantee you'll love the finish. It's pretty gosh darn amazing.

You can grab a bottle of Waxy Lady at LacAttack.com. A full size bottle runs a mere $8.00, and minis are available as well. While you're there, take a peek at the new Cell Block Tango Collection! It's Epic, seriously. You can also follow Lac Attack on Facebook and Instagram for sales and re-stock info, new releases, and swatches.

What do you think of Waxy Lady? Do you prefer Wax effect or full matte manicures?

I'll be back tomorrow with my Mish Mash Challenge mani for this week - it's a pretty epic polish so be sure to check back. And I have a new to me Indie Brand for Flakie Friday as well as new Polish TBH and Candied Lustre's Holiday Collection coming up! I'm going to be a swatching fiend!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber




*Product(s) Featured provided for review. Please see Disclaimer/Legal Page for more information**  

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Selasa, 05 November 2013

Midori

So I've been lurking around Instagram all week and checked out one of my colleagues's pics and got very inspired. :) You can see her super pretty look here --> *click!*









Face
*Skin Base Foundation 02 (Illamasqua)
*Pro Longwear Concealer NC15 (MAC)

Eyebrows
*Brow duo Dark brown (Anastasia Beverly Hills)

Eyes
*Charcoal Brown (MAC) Crease color
*Midori, Mochi, Subterranean and Soot & Stars (Sugarpill)
*Corrupt (Makeup Geek) Upper lash line
*Jumbo Pencil Milk (NYX)
*Silk teddy (Too Faced)
*Extended Play Gigablack Mascara (MAC)
*False eyelashes #6 (MAC)

Lips
*Prep + Prime Lip primer (MAC)
*Shard lipstick (Illamasqua)
*Lipgloss  Blackberry (Clarins)

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All of you guys who have an Instagram account, leave your username in the comments field below so I can go in and check them out. Can't promise that I will follow them all but I will go in and have a look around. :)

Thanks a lot for reading and hope you liked the look!



Minggu, 03 November 2013

Penguin Makeup Challenge Part 3: White and a Color

This will be the third and last part of the Penguin makeup challenge, and, unfortunately, another one-eyed look. Sorry for that! I accidentally poked myself in the eye with the mascara wand (not when painting on mascara but when I combed through my brows --> klutz!) so there was no way that eye would forgive me enough to put makeup on it. It hurt like hell so do me a favor and try to keep your mascara wands out of your eyes, ok?

The other girls's looks:
*Confusionbay
*Stargirlphoto


Well, this is the third part, and last, of the Penguin makeup challenge; white and a color. Up until I sat down to do this look I had planned to do it red and white but then I suddenly switched the red for purple. :)


Step 1. Prime your eyes with your primer of choice. After that I applied a thin layer of MAC's Studio Finish Concealer all over the lid, to erase any freckles and flaws. I also took some foundation through my brows to get them a little bit lighter. And last, but not least I applied NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk all the way up to the eyebrow.


Step 2. First I ran Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide On Pencil in Vice softly through my brows and evened out the result with a MAC #266 brush. Then, with the same brush, I applied Poison plum by Sugarpill to set the pencil and make my brows look more purple. 


Step 3. Through the crease I applied Wisteria by Makeup Geek which is just a light, pinkish purple. To apply the eyeshadow and blend it I used a MAC #217 brush.


Step 4. With a Sigma E30 brush I applied Poison plum by Sugarpill in the "outer C" and dragged it inwards. To get a softer result I picked up my #217 again, which still had some remaining product from the previous step, and blended it out. 


Step 5. In the outermost part of the crease I applied Purple Rain by Makeup Geek, again using the "C" technique. 



Step 6. Mix Poison Plum with some sealing gel (Illamasqua) to get your own eyeliner.


Step 7. False lashes and mascara. These lashes are Red Cherry #28.

Hope you liked this look and that this tutorial taught you something you didn't already know! :) Have a lovely day and thank you for stopping by!




Sabtu, 02 November 2013

A Late Flakie Friday - Lac Attack Durmstrang

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Hello lovelies! I know, I know...I'm late again. I swear that when I think I'm going to have all the time in the world to post, I end up having no time at all. This week was good ole mother nature surfacing to hand me my monthly migraine, and cramps that were so bad that they were radiating down my left leg. Not fun. I spent all of Thursday in bed with my heating pad and a bottle of Advil. Yesterday was better, but it was also payday, which meant lots of running around. It also meant online polish shopping though, and I have some really awesome Indies on the way, and I am beyond excited. I have some Liquid Sky Lacquer Multichromes, some gorgeous glitters and a flakie from Supernatural Lacquers, and a quick dry top coat and flakie polish from Underground Cosmetics on their way.

And speaking of Indie Goodness, the giveaway is still in the works - I just need to find time to finish separating the prizes into groups. I'm painting a bedroom this weekend, so it will more than likely be Monday or Tuesday before I'm ready to go live. Sorry for the delay, folks. Giveaways aren't always as cut and dry as they seem.

Today I have a late Flakie Friday polish to share with you lovelies. I'm trying to get back into my usual schedule, even though I failed this week. But hey! I'm only a day late with this one, and my god is it worth the wait!

If you haven't heard of Lac Attack, you may be living under a rock. Seriously, Lac Attack is one of the coolest Indie brands around, and I had been coveting so many Lac Attack polishes. My biggest lemming was a polish called Durmstrang, from the Magical Musings Collection. Durmstrang (named for the Wizarding Institute that Victor Krumm attended) is a gorgeous sheer blue polish loaded with shimmer (not just gold, but there's some awesome pink and blue shimmer that peeks through as well) and black shard and diamond glitters. I guess it's technically a glitter polish, but those black shards are flakes in my world, so it still counts, right?

Even though Durmstrang is described as an Icy blue, On my nails it's more of a bright Cobalt. Maybe it's my lighting, but even in sunlight, it's much more Cobalt. And I'm okay with that - I love me some bright blue!

This is 3 coats of Durmstrang topped with NPB Glitter Food and HK Girl Top Coat:










































Can I just say WOW! First of all - that blue! Oh, that magical, beautiful, perfect blue. It's no secret that Blue will always be my very fave color to wear on my nails, and this particular blue is everything that I've ever wanted in a blue polish. Toss in the amazing shimmer and diamond and shard glitters and you have Kimber's dream polish.

Durmstrang's formula is just as awesome as the polish itself, with a perfect jelly consistency and no thickening during use. Application was much easier than I had anticipated - with all of those diamonds and shards I had expected application to be somewhat tricky and require some dabbing and glitter placement, however Durmstrang applied beautifully with just the usual brush strokes. Those diamonds and shards also lay flat on the nail for the most part - I think I had one tiny little shard on the tip of one nail that was a little pokey, but it didn't come off, so it was a non issue. Durmstrang is fairly sheer, so you will need either 2 thicker coats or 3 thinner coats for opacity, or you can layer this baby over a similar color. Since it has that awesome shimmer, I feel like this would be fairly epic layered over a Navy blue as well. Wear was pretty epic for shard glitter - I'm actually still wearing this polish (I applied this on Thursday night around 1 am) and have no wear at all and zero lifting glitters. I did add a coat of Glitter Food to this mani since the shard glitters can be fairly textured, and that smoothed everything out perfectly.

Obviously, I am in love with Durmstrang. I have a feeling I'll be needing a backup bottle sooner rather than later. In my opinion, this is a must have for any polish lover.

You can grab your very own bottle of Durmstrang at LacAttack.com for $8.00 full size or $4.25 for a mini bottle. While you're there, I highly recommend checking out the Cell Block Tango Collection. My polish budget is tight at the moment, but I plan on grabbing that collection as soon as I can swing it. don't forget to check out Lac Attack on Facebook and Instagram for new releases, sales and re-stock info, and swatches.

I have new Polish TBH coming up ASAP (with the painting I have no idea if it will be tomorrow or Monday, but it's coming!) as well as some Born Pretty Store Nail Art products.

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber





*Product(s) Featured provided for review. Please see Disclaimer/Legal Page for more information**  

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