Polish TBH Diagon Alley Collection - Amortentia!!

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

Hello Lovelies! Happy (very late) Caturday! At least it's still Saturday here....

I meant to have this post up much sooner today, but since there's always something going on around here, that just didn't happen. But here I am now, with some Epic goodness to share.

I'm sure by now you've all seen me doing the happy dance over the Polish TBH's Fall Collection. It's a 6 polish collection inspired by Harry Potter, and aptly named "Diagon Alley" (Did he say Diagonally? I think he said Diagonally!").  Lemme tell ya, in true Polish TBH form, this collection is epic. It's rockin' my socks, loves!

Photo credit: BellNGems.blogspot

The first polish I have to show you is Amortentia. Named after the potion that is "the strongest love potion in the world", Amortentia is a mix of Rosy Pink, Grey, various sizes of white, and scattered holo microglitters in a clear base.  Although this polish matches the potion perfectly, I was not able to smell anything related to my partner (past, present, or future) in this. ;)

This is 1 coat of Amortentia over Essence Ballerina's Charm. **Click to view larger, sharper image. Blogger is not playing nicely with my photos lately!**

I absolutely love how soft this glitter is. It's absolutely stunning and eye-catching while still retaining a softer, more feminine feel. The holo in this polish was a bit camera shy, but is very evident IRL.

Gratuitous Macro Shot!

Amortentia's formula is true Polish TBH awesomesauce. Chrissy's formula is never less than stellar. Application was easy peasy, although I did use the dab method with this one since the larger glitters aren't as prevalent as the micro-holo. Very easy dab application though - it took maybe 3 or pats of the brush to cover the entire nail, no fishing required, and the glitters all stayed put and lay flat right away. Dry time was incredibly fast and wear is excellent. I'm still wearing this (and staring at it often) and despite whacking my hands against the table, the fridge, countertops and opening boxes, I don't have  single loose glitter.

Amortentia is definitely a new favorite for me. I love the colors, the glitter mix, and even though Chrissy mentioned she would be adding more glitter to this one, I actually dig that it's not absolutely packed with glitter. It gives the micro-holo a chance to shine and enhances your base color without being overpowering. With or without more glitter, this polish is a classic beauty and I'll be reaching for it often.

The Diagon Alley Collection is now available for pre-order at Polish TBH on Big Cartel. Full size polishes run $10, save for Sorcerer's Stone which is $12 (it's a thermal!). The entire collection is also available as a set for $55 Full Size or $22 mini. Follow Polish TBH on Facebook and Instagram for updates!

How do you like Amortentia? Are you excited to see the rest of this awesome collection?

I'll be back with the next polish fro Diagon Alley tomorrow! I'll also have a bonus post with some Cinema Swatch Lacquers for ya!

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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Safari Chic Dots

Well hello strangers!!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Mine consisted of some Christmas decorating which also involved crafting a few decorations.  I forgot to take some pictures but I will definitely do that soon.  I also had my nephews 2nd birthday party to go to.  It was a jammed pack weekend of to-dos!

These nails were done on Thursday or Friday night. I really can't recall do to all the craziness.  For the full nails I used L'Oreals 'Safari Chic' which is a beautiful army green colour.  I used a swipe or two of Essence Black on the tips.  It didn't look right so I added a few glitter dots by Quo.

Hope you like

Essence Date In The Moonlight stamped

Good Morning lovelies! So Sorry I was MIA yesterday, but I was exhausted after handling a client emergency on top of not sleeping very well. I did manage to actually shape my little nubbins though, which makes me happy. My nails grow very weird - as in they don't sit anywhere near straight in the nail bed and I have a crazy pronounced C Curve. When it comes to filing, I can't get under the corners while they are short, so I have to grow them a bit, then file them into shape. That means that I end up losing most of my new length, but it's worth it since when I do it this way, I can just let them grow with no fuss for a good 2 weeks or so. If I don't do it this way, then I end up having to mess with them almost constantly since they aren't really anywhere near shaped well. I detest filing so this works for me.

Today I have a fun little manicure I did last night to share with you all. Awhile back KKCenterHK Online Store sent me some glitter to try out, and I wanted to use them with some stamping. I chose Essence Date In The Moonlight, a deep dusty grey/blue with teal shimmer, as my base color. Then I grabbed Finger Paints Fall-ing For You and stamped the flower image from one of my Red Angle Plates. Then I grabbed my teal 3mm glitter from KKCenterHK and added a single glitter to the center of the flower. Normally I would've used a rhinestone for the center, but I wanted to see if these larger glitters would work as well. The outcome is pretty cute!

I love Date In The Moonlight. These new Colour and Go polishes are just as awesome as the originals. The bottle is different, and the brush is one of the wide, paddle brushes, but the polish itself has the same smooth formula. DITM is also highly pigmented, so steer clear of your cuticles and skin!

Fall-ing for you is an untried for me, but I love how it stamps. I've been looking for a good teal stamping polish, and this is perfect.

The KKCenterHK glitters were alot of fun to play with, and I love how vibrant the color is. These are large glitters at 3mm, but would make a great addition to a glitter mani of any kind. I love using them as little accents with stamping, or as a center for smaller glitter nail art. They come in a large pot, just like the smaller loose glitters, and retail for $7.85. This particular glitter is item number N.Nail-LB700-3mm, or you can click here to check them out. They carry lots of awesome loose glitters as well as awesome nail art supplies of all kinds (as well as those cool fuzzy Leopard stickers!). Don't forget to use code KimbersKorner at checkout to save 10% off your entire order.

What do you think of loose glitters with stamping?

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

31 Day Challenge (v.2!) Day 9: Rainbow Nails

Morning Ladies! It's day 9 of the challenge, and I have to tell you guys, I was so uninspired here. I love Rainbow manis on other people, but I don't like them on me for some reason. I had come up with a few ideas, but didn't like them once I had them done, so I would end up removing them and starting over. In the end, I went with some good old stamping and called it a day.

I don't think this turned out too bad, although my yellow just would not cooperate and kept smearing all over the plate. Unfortunately it's the only opaque yellow I own, so I was stuck with its wonky smeariness. Thankfully IRL they don't look bad at all, but in macro mode? Eh, they're kinda messy where the yellow blends (or actually refused to blend) in. But hey, It's rainbow and it's on time so that's a win in my book!

For this hot mess mani I used Sinful's Snow Me White as my base, then used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Cherry Red, Sun Kissed, and Mellow Yellow. The Green is Sinful's Envy, and the Blue is Essence Walk On Air.

The funny thing is that this mani ended up growing on me despite the evil yellow (Remember our yellow manis and how lost of us had issues with our yellow polish? I swear yellow is just evil!). In fact, I'm still wearing it! It's coming off later today since I am expecting some birthday stamping plates and polishes, but it was actually kind of fun to wear something I wouldn't normally wear.

Anyway, here is my less than stellar Rainbow Mani in all it's glory!

It's not too bad, right? Not my best work but hey. After 2 failed attempts this was all I had left in me. I do not haz mad Rainbow skillz! ;)

Be sure to check out the rest of the Varnished Vixens Rainbow Manis! Hopefully they didn't have as many issues as I did!

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
-Greta at How Was Your Day?
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles  

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing! Be sure to check us out on Sunday for Gradient Nails!
 -Kimber

31 Day Challenge (v.2!) Day 6: Violet Nails!

Morning Ladies! I really hope this post makes sense, since I'm running on maybe 90 minutes of sleep and am still on my first cup of coffee. :)

First of all, If you haven't entered my giveaway, DO EET!!! Also, my special guest today will be "Random Cat Hair", and since he snuck into some of my pictures without my knowledge, he asks that you admire him and just kinda chuckle at his sneakiness.

Today's challenge was Violet/Purple nails, which meant that I was incredibly indecisive and didn't actually decide what I was doing until the very last second. I had actually planned on doing a checkerboard mani for these, but for some reason I really wanted to play with my dotting tools, so I went with a multi-purple mermaid scale dotticure instead. This is my first time attempting this design, and I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. My ring finger is less than stellar, but since it's not noticable IRL, I didn't bother re-doing it. Not that I want you guys to have to see manicure wonkiness, but this mani was time consuming and by the time I was done there was no way I was re-doing anything that wasn't glaringly obvious! It was a lot of fun though, and I'll definitely be trying this with different colors in the future.

For this mani I started with a base of Color Show Iced Queen, a lovely soft yet vibrant lilac purple. hen I added the dots in a straight line using China Glaze VIII and Grape Juice, Petites Mystical, Essence Break Through and Iced Queen again. The trick here is to dot in between the row above where you're currently dotting, creating a fish-scale type effect. The hardest part was keeping my darned dots centered between the dots. I'm not good at much around 2 am, and that's when I chose to do my dotting, so a few of the lines are dotted like I just finished a plethora of jager bombs. ;)

I also don't know why my camera has decided that it really must make my hands look so lobstery, but okay. I'd rather have lobster hands and color accurate photos I suppose.

And now, without further adieu, I give you.....*drumroll please!* VIOLET NAILS (co-starring Random Cat Hair!)!!

Did you spot Random Cat Hair? That guy is a show-off, I swear.  He lives to try and sneak into my photos.

Anyway, this didn't turn out half bad for a last minute change in mani plan and my first attempt at mermaid nails sans stamping. Would you rock this look?

Our next challenge will be Black and White Nails on Friday. I'm excited about that one since it's rare that I wear either color these days!

Don't forget to check out the rest of the Varnished Vixens Violet Manis! I guarantee they rock!

-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
-Greta at How Was Your Day?
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles 

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!!
-Kimber

Kleancolor Glitter: Midnight Seduction

Hi Ladies! Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes. I had a fab bday yesterday. At some point I'll have to take a pic of my bday haul, but it includes a ton of Hard Candy, Essence, China Glaze, Orly, and Kleancolor. I'll reveal my age after the giveaway, since I'm having so much fun with the guesses! And on that note:

Don't forget to enter my GIVEAWAY! DO IT!!!!!

Today I have my very fave glitter to share with you all. When I first saw Kleancolor Midnight Seduction, I knew it had to be mine. This girl shines with a veritable glitterfest of silvery blue, grey, pink, gold, and red micro glitters in a clear base. It is stunning. I wish my pics did it justice, but halfway through shooting them, my main camera died, and I had to switch to my backup. My cameras take very different pictures, so the quality is very different as well. The first few pics are the most color accurate, but the last few show how colorful this girl is. Honestly I cannot wait to wear this again. (This wasn't my bday mani - I'll show you that after I post my purple nails tomorrow)

 I also tried out the DIY Peel off base coat with this, and man! What a life changer! I'm going to be bombarding you guys with glitters now, since it literally took about 2 seconds to remove my glitter. SWEET! Now, onto Midnight Seduction.

Details: 1 coat DIY Peel Off Base Coat
2 coats Essence Movie Star
2 coats Midnight Seduction
1 coat Seche Vite

I cannot tell you how much I love this glitter. Not only would I buy it a nice dinner, but I would bring it flowers and candy and sing it love songs. It is my squishy and it is mine!

Formula:
Perfection. Very dense glitter in a not too thick, not too thin base.

Application:
Since this baby is so dense, I had zero issues. This girl stayed where I put it, built up fabulously, and did not require any real clean up. Love.

If you dig glitter, You need this girl. It's certainly one of the most beautiful glitters I have ever seen, and pretty unique in my stash. I can't rave about it enough. In fact, I have a feeling this will be my next pedi, and I may have to wear it again in between challenges this week!

What do you think of Midnight Seduction?

Thanks for dropping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Bubble Gum Bubbles Nails

Hello kids! ;)

Today I have an 'off the top of my head' manicure for you.  After I was done it kind of reminded me of bubble gum.  Who doesn't love bubble gum, right?!

I used five different nail polishes for this look.  The base is in Orly's 'Decades of Dysfunction'.  I started off making the largest dots in Quo 'Tease'.  This helped to make the path I created from the first nail to the last. I tried to make it as though the dots were flowing through to each nail.  After the large dots I used smaller dots to follow the trail and fill in spaces. I find going from largest to smallest gives it the best look.   For the smaller dots I used Nicole's 'Stolen Kisses', Essence 'Ultimate Pink' and Essie's 'Watermelon'. 

I'm impressed with it I think.  I love using the dotter.  Not just because it's easy but I love the look.

More Pink! Essence Sweet as Candy and Cloud Tips!

Hi Guys! Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

Today I have another lovely Pink to share with You. Essence Sweet As Candy from their Colour & Go Line is a a gorgeous soft pink jelly. I did not expect to love this so much, since very light, sheer polish just isn't my thing, but it's really growing on me. I had intended to just use this as a base for some nail art, but I loved it so much that I wore it alone for a day.  So soft and pretty! This is 2 generous coats of squishy goodness over Instant Artificials:

 I just love Essence. I swear for 99 cents, those little polishes are a steal.  I do wish that my Ulta carried more than a handful of colors though. 

Formula on this girl was lovely. Perfect Jelly application. I did have a few spots of balding, but that was more my own impatience between coats. Otherwise, I can't complain at all.

I also wanted to try out some of Nailside's designs, and I thought that some little clouds would be perfect with this color. My only problem was that I used mini polishes for the silver and pink clouds, and the brushes were too small to make the strokes wide enough to cover my entire nail. So I just left them as is since I wasn't sure that adding another stroke would look ok. I kind of like how they only cover 3/4 of the tip, and for a first attempt at this design with flat, square mini brushes, it didn't turn out half bad. The perfectionist in me isn't pleased, but IRL they do look very cute and the flaws aren't as obvious, so I can live with them.  I will definitely be trying this design again.

Fun stuff! Seriously, don't laugh too hard at my attempt at clouds. I promise my next attempt will be better! And I'll take pics right away so you guys don't have to look at my tip wear.  ;)

 For my clouds I used Essence Icy Princess (Silver) and Pixel Mis-chief-ous (Pink). I'm not sure how I feel about the color combo, but it's tolerable. Hubs loves it, and that always makes me feel good. I think I'm just not used to using this much pink at one time. I adore pink, but I prefer dark, vampy colors on my nails and seeing this much pink kinda throws me off!

 And check out my cuticles! They're far from perfect, but still a vast improvement! I've been using Solar Oil for close to 2 weeks, and my cuticles are actually there and constantly improving! I may end up with pretty cuticles yet! Considering how problematic and shabby my cuticles are, and how much I tend to lose patience and just snip/gnaw at them, this is a HUGE change. I have no desire to mess with them beyond some cuticle remover, and since my products aren't at all harsh (Burt's Bees and Solar Oil), no more swelling and cracking. Yay!!!!!! Let's hope this trend continues!

Hope you're all having a decent Monday, if such a thing exists!

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Petite's Daze and Mermaid Tails

Hi guys! I seem to be recovering from the evil stomach bug! Yay! I swear, if this year continues on the path it's been headed down, I'll be in the looney bin by March. Ugh!  But enough whining, onto the polish!

Today I have a really awesome little drugstore polish to share with you, Petites Daze. Daze is a bright yellow based green glitter/foil that caught my eye on a trip to Wal Mart awhile back. There were a ton of newer petites colors (newer to me at least, wal mart usually only has a handful of petites colors out here), so I picked up as many as I could. At $1.29 a pop, I figured even if I hated them, they were worth it. Daze is certainly the standout among the Petites colors I picked up, being the only bright color and one of the 2 that isn't a creme. I still couldn't tell you if it's a glitter or a foil, since it has glittery particles suspended in a sheer green base, but is very foil-like. I'll call it a Gloil. Close enough, right? Anyway, check out this dazzling little beauty!

Taken in lightbox - sorry for weird lighting! I think it's time for a new daylight bulb!

I love this green! It does cast a bit of a yellow glow on my cuticles, but it's such a fun color that I'm willing to overlook a little cuticle jaundice.  Formula on this was much better than I had expected. It did need 3 coats to look somewhat even, and as with any glitter it left it's fair share of glittery residue on my fingertips (I maintain it's festive), but it went on smoothly and stayed where I told it to. Wear wasn't too shabby either. I wore this alone for a day without any tip wear or chipping. Of course, since it's such a bright and shimmer color, I had to play with it a bit. I decided to  add a sponged gradient using Essence Choose Me, then double stamped using both Essence Choose Me and Pure Ice Silver Mercedes. I topped that off with a quick coat of Pure Ice Heartbreaker and some SV and voila! Mermaid Mani!

I don't think it came out half bad! Some of the stamping smudged a bit, but I also stamped directly onto the sponged polish - limited time frame and impatience on my part. :(

First, my Left Hand:

And my rarely seen Right Hand! Funny, lately when I stamp my right hand comes out better than my left!

I had a blast working on this mani. What do you guys think?

Hope you're all having a fabulous Friday!

Happy Polishing
-Kimber